Senate Republicans have a new messenger-in-chief as Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) embarks on a media blitz to sell President Donald Trump‘s agenda.
Thune has been scheduling interviews on a near-daily basis as the Senate prepares to vote on Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” He started the week with an appearance on Shannon Bream’s Fox News Sunday, followed by three other TV and radio hits.
The media circuit is familiar to Thune — since he became majority leader in January, he’s gone on national TV 29 times. His appearances on radio and podcasts have now reached double digits.
But the messaging has taken on new consequence as Thune faces the biggest test of his early tenure. With just days to meet his self-imposed July 4 deadline to pass the tax cut-and-border bill, Thune is corralling votes under an onslaught of criticism, including loud complaints from his right flank.
On Wednesday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), one of the Senate’s GOP holdouts, released a report directly challenging Thune’s insistence that the bill, which includes more than $1 trillion in budget offsets, won’t add to the deficit.
Democrats, meanwhile, have framed the legislation as a welfare-slashing healthcare bill that is skewed toward the rich.
Thune has a carefully calibrated message that downplays GOP divisions over the bill while countering Democratic attacks.
On its $2.8 trillion deficit impact, Thune says the nonpartisan scorekeepers who calculate that estimate are notoriously “biased.” On the 11 million people who could lose their health coverage, Thune says its Medicaid cuts target “Biden-era waste, fraud, and abuse.”
“Democrats are out there clamoring, screaming about cutting Medicaid — it doesn’t cut Medicaid, it slows the rate of growth,” Thune told Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday.
Public perception of the bill largely falls along party lines, though Republican support is anemic in polling. Just 67% of GOP voters approved of the bill in the latest Quinnipiac survey, compared to the 89% of Democrats against it.
Republicans must also court a sizable share of voters whose minds are not yet made up. In a Washington Post/Ipsos poll, 34% of those surveyed, and 40% of independents, had no opinion of the bill.
Thune is not alone in his media outreach. A wide cross-section of Senate Republicans are making the rounds on cable TV, including Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), the usually reserved Finance Committee chairman who released the tax portion of the bill earlier this week.
He appeared on Fox’s Larry Kudlow on Tuesday, while other prominent Republicans venture into more adversarial settings. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), an adviser to Thune, sat for a Wednesday interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
Thune’s willingness to go on the airwaves is a departure from his predecessor. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who retired from leadership in January, rarely appeared on cable TV, and when he did grant interviews, he tended to gravitate toward legacy outlets.
By contrast, Thune has become a regular guest on Fox News, with periodic appearances on Newsmax and conservative radio shows. Shortly after he became majority leader, he sat for the Sunday shows and granted his first print interview to the Washington Examiner.
The blitz predates Thune’s new role. He had a presence on cable when he served as whip, the No. 2 position in Senate GOP leadership. But the media tour is being welcomed by his conference as part of a larger shift in leadership style.
“He definitely has a face for TV,” quipped Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), who added that Thune has brought more Senate Republicans into the decision-making process since taking over for McConnell.
“I like Mitch a lot, and I like his style, but John’s definitely doing it differently, and I think he’s living up to the things that he said he would do and that people wanted him to do,” Cramer said.
Mullin, for his part, said a blanket-the-airwaves approach was necessary to counter the drumbeat of Democratic attacks.
The TV appearances are being scheduled alongside millions in GOP advertising to protect members who will face tough reelection prospects next year. Democrats targeted dozens of swing districts after House Republicans passed the megabill by a single vote last month.
“So many times, Republicans, we sit back and we react to a story, instead of being out front and telling the story of what’s actually happening,” Mullin said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), too, has stepped up his media footprint since the new Congress began, in part due to a March spending fight in which he was criticized for caving to Republicans.
He is not on TV as often as a decade ago, when he was known as a publicity hound. Instead, Schumer has favored press conferences and is taking advantage of his large social media following with straight-to-camera videos.
“I mean, I just think MSNBC watchers, God bless them, are not undecided voters,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), another senior messenger for Democrats, said of his own emphasis on social media.
The Democratic pressure campaign has helped shape the tax bill, with Senate Republicans watering down some House provisions — though Thune is pursuing more aggressive changes to Medicaid.
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Republicans are simultaneously making an affirmative case for the tax cuts, as Democrats cite scores showing they favor the wealthy. In his Sunday interview, Thune warned of a $2.6 trillion tax hike on the lower and middle class if Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is not made permanent.
“This is really about preserving and protecting families and ensuring that they’ve got more dollars in their own pocket and that they’re sending less to Washington,” Thune said.