Tag: John Thune

Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr declined to critique Trump's tweets, but he stood by the covert services. Trump's rejection of intelligence agency assessments that Russia interfered in the 2016 election rocked his ties with his administration's top spies during his first year in office. Often his goal seemed to be to grease his one-man flattery offensive toward President Vladimir Putin, which continues to this day. Now Trump is inventing his own version of the facts to justify his withdrawal from an Obama-era nuclear deal because the deal was "defective at its core." It's unprecedented for a president to be so frequently and publicly at war with the intelligence community. But it was also another example of how the President prioritizes his own political goals when they conflict with the judgments of the intelligence community. Trump's most notorious dissing of US intelligence came during his summit with Putin in Helsinki last year, in a shocking public display of an American President siding with one of his nation's enemies over his own administration. It's ironic that a Republican President should adopt positions so at odds with his party's self-image as the adult in the room on national security. McConnell was positioning himself as the voice of the traditionally hawkish Republican consensus on foreign policy. Though it could be argued that on the idea of bringing troops home from long foreign wars, the President is more in tune with grass-roots opinion than his critics -- a view backed up by early exchanges in the Democratic White House race.

Jeb Bush lamented the current state of politics in the United States — and the lack of civility — during a speech Wednesday night at the 37th Annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinner and Children's Charity. Jeb Bush joined governor-elect Kristi Noem, Gov. Dennis Daugaard, Sen. John Thune and Attorney General Marty Jackley in making remarks at the dinner, which honors South Dakota law enforcement and has raised millions of dollars for children. Bush's speech focused primarily on returning to civility in the country's political discussions, warning that we'd reached a point where people we disagreed with weren't just people with different opinions. "They're becoming enemies," Bush said. That means finding politicians that act respectfully and don't disparage others, he said -- and while he never said the name "Trump," the implication was clear. "Today in American politics," Bush said, "there are very few rewards for doing things right." While Bush headlined the speech, South Dakotans spoke before him, including Thune, who said he'd met Bush more than 30 years ago, and said that no other American family more exemplified public service. And standing in front of the massive crowd filling the Ramkota Exhibit Hall, Daugaard told attendees "banquets are not enough" to thank them for all that they do in the name of public service. More: Billie Sutton turned much of the state blue, but not deep blue