The fight against closure is intensifying while Thune warns that Democrats want political theater

First on Fox: The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, RS.D., said that he thought that the Democrats of the Senate apply for a government closure to mark a political victory with their base, and he tries to prevent it.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Thune argued that the Democrats, led by the leader of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., have no real reason for not supporting the extension of the financing of the government in the short term of the GOP other than to appease “the extreme left”.

Thune said that in March, when the Democrats joined the Republicans last time to keep the government open, Schumer and his Caucus made a “very different argument” to avoid a partial closure of the government, but this decision was unpopular with its political base.

The brand of the Republicans of the Senate is a crisis of “closure of Schumer” while the Democrats are committed

The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, RS.D., has taken a tour of the Democrats in the Senate for their resistance to an extension of government financing. (Maxine Wallace / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“It is to the point where their base (a) had so much influence in the party, and they so much demand to resist and fight everything, as regards the Trump administration, that they cannot see directly,” said Thune.

“It is a limit pathological. It is like a disease,” he continued. “They – that it is something with which they are afflicted, and I think it really blurs their vision. And I think they run the risk with this, once again, to put themselves in a position of the place where they are considered the party which tries to prevent the government from being funded.”

The House Republicans unveiled their Stopgap bill, known as continuous resolution (CR), earlier this week that would maintain the open government under current expenditure levels until November 21.

The bill is “clean”, which means that there is no partisan policy or spending runners, with the exception of millions intended to strengthen security measures for legislators, the judicial and administration branch, and funding intended for Washington, the DC budget.

While the house under republican control should adopt the bill on Friday, the Senate is another story. Although Thune ordered a majority in the upper room, he will need the Senate democrats to support the bill. And so far, they do not move.

Trump puts pressure on Republicans to adopt a continuous resolution to avoid a government closure

Leader of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. (Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, included via Getty Images)

Thune argued that the bill is all that the Democrats – when they controlled the Senate under former President Joe Biden – dreamed: a clean and short -term bill. But the problem at hand is now a question of communication.

Schumer accused Thune of not speaking with him, or the Democrats of the Senate more broadly, the bill, and he labeled the surge of the GOP to avoid a partial government closed a partisan effort led by President Donald Trump.

But Thune said he tried to speak to Schumer last week when the GOP was preparing to change the rules of the Senate to explode the blockade of the Democrats of Trump’s candidates.

Thune went to Schumer on the ground to discuss the talks then in progress between the Republicans and the Democrats on an agreement for confirmations, but he recalled that the Democratic chief had rejected him.

“He couldn’t get out of the conversation fairly quickly,” said Thune. “It was, as, which flowed from the ground. So, I mean, there was certainly an opportunity to say:” We have to sit and speak, you know, a CR and how to finance the government. “I just think it’s a more political posture.”

“This is how it is supposed to work. But the way Schumer likes it works, and I think it is, once again, part of his business model, is that you go to his back office, behind closed doors and write this, you know, in the dark of the night, and that is simply not the way we do business,” he continued.

The Democrats of the Senate unveiled their own counter-proposition to the GOP bill Wednesday evening which includes a multitude of their priorities not included in the CR Clean, such as the extension of subsidies with the permanently expired Obamacare, by stripping the cups of Medicaid of “Big and PBS of Big and PBS.

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President Donald Trump went to Air Force One at Morristown Airport on September 14, 2025 in Morristown, New Jersey. (Images Kevin Dietsch / Getty)

Thune said that some of the questions that the Democrats pushed in a short-term extension “do not adapt there”, but that conversations, in particular to find an agreement for health insurance tax credits, could be had later.

However, he considered the resistance of Democrats to be not “serious”, since the final objective of the short -term extension is to spend the dozen bills of expenditure to finance the government – a feat that has not been achieved in Congress since the 1990s.

The Chamber and the Senate are currently working on a path to follow for three bills of expenditure, which the two chambers have already adopted. Thune hoped that if legislators could avoid partial closure, this work could continue with the nine remaining financing bills.

“It will test the severity of whether or not they want a real credits process and whether they want to have a bipartite way to finance the government,” said Thune.

“And if the Democrats gave us the consent to acquire them and work with us, we could have a bipartite process on the ground as we did with these three others, and we could finance most of the older government, which is supposed to be done,” he continued.

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But before it could happen, the bill must go to the upper chamber. Thune leaves the door open so that the Senate works in the weekend, but the deadline of September 30 is fast.

The congress also has a recreation scheduled for next week to observe the Jewish New Year, and a large majority of Republicans will be in Arizona for the commemorative service of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

There are also several procedural obstacles to the Senate which will have to be treated, to get the process more. In the end, Thune thought it would be “to the Democrats”.

“If they want to vote earlier, later, and our members again – if the Democrats will fight us and make us do this to the hard – can simply decide:” Confidence simply for the votes “,” said Thune. “When we come back here, and we run down to the deadline, when it becomes real, then we use live ammunition.”

Fox News Digital contacted Schumer’s office to comment but did not immediately hear.