Senate Majority Leader John Thune was on “Sunday Morning Futures” with host Maria Bartiromo to discuss the Democrats and the ongoing government shutdown.
“Where do the negotiations stand today?” Bartiromo asked Senator Thune.
“Well, there is not a lot to negotiate, Maria. The Democrats just need to open up the government. Right now, we are at a stalemate. They’ve now voted four times. We’ve given them the opportunity, a clean, non-partisan, short-term funding resolution that continues government funding for the next seven weeks, and on four occasions now, they have voted against it,” Thune said.
“What’s happening here is the Democrats are trying to hijack a short-term, non-partisan continuing resolution to fund the government merely for seven weeks to give us an opportunity to get the appropriations process done to try and get one and a half trillion dollars of new spending, make healthcare in this country, free healthcare available to non-citizens in this country,” Thune said of the Democrats.
“The Democrats need to come to that realization and understand their option in front of them here is to open up the government and then we can talk about all of these other things they want to have a conversation about,” Senator Thune said.
“There are expectations out there from analysts that this shutdown could last weeks, not days. How long are you expecting this to go on?” Bartiromo asked.
Senator Thune explained that getting the government open depended on Democrats willingness to vote with the Republicans to get at least the minimum of 60 votes to pass legislation.
“I think it’s just as long as the Democrats want it go to on. I mean, they are the ones, they have the controlling card right now,” Thune said.
“All we need is another five Democrat Senators to join us to get the 60 votes that are necessary to pass legislation in the Senate,” Thune continued.
Senator Thune also explained that the leadership of the Democrats in the Senate is responsible for the shutdown because they are controlled by interest groups that are on the far-left.
“This is a Schumer shutdown. Chuck Schumer instigated this at the behest of a bunch of far-left, liberal interest groups, but there are Democrats who are reaching out to Republicans, having conversations about how we might be able to get the government opened up again,” Thune continued.
“This is a very costly endeavor for the Democrats to take because it really does hurt people across this country,” Thune said.
“Have you identified five more that you think could actually vote with Republicans?” Bartiromo asked.
“There are conversations ongoing Maria, where Democrats who I think realize this is a losing strategy for them and it really ends in a dead end, want to find an offramp here and are talking to Republicans,” Thune said.
“I think right now their leadership is stuck because these left-wing special interest groups are so adamant in their desire to fight President Trump,” Thune explained.
Watch:
Today, exclusively on @SundayFutures with @MariaBartiromo, Senate Majority Leader John Thune @LeaderJohnThune spoke about the majority of Senate Democrats refusing to back a short-term CR to reopen the federal government.@FoxNews pic.twitter.com/hjwpsYrJwh
— SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) October 5, 2025