GOP’s Thune Slams Schumer for ‘Political Games’ Amid SNAP Funding Crisis

By Ramsey Touchberry | Washington Examiner

An animated Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) unleashed on Democrats on Wednesday over food stamp funding that’s set to run dry on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown.

The normally mild-mannered Midwesterner shouted a deluge of criticism on the floor against Democrats for seeking to pass a stand-alone measure for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other federal food aid after having opposed a “clean” GOP stopgap bill 13 times in recent weeks to reopen the government.

“SNAP recipients shouldn’t go without food. People should be getting paid in this country. And we tried to do that 13 times! You voted ‘no’ 13 times!” Thune charged on the shutdown’s 29th day. “This isn’t a political game. These are real people’s lives we’re talking about, and you all have just figured out, 29 days in, that, ‘Oh, there might be some consequences?’”

I worked for Sen. Thune for three years and I never once heard him raise his voice or get this angry.

Democrats picked the wrong Senate Majority Leader to play political games with. pic.twitter.com/F6Xt7lX6kH

— Erin Maguire (@ErinMMaguire) October 29, 2025

Thune blocked an effort by Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) to pass a funding carveout for SNAP and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, which some GOP senators have also advocated be funded during the shutdown. Thune went on to condemn Democrats for what he called a “cynical attempt to provide political cover” before Luján offered a reaction.

“I get in trouble sometimes because I use language from that little farm that I still call home, but I’ve learned the rules of decorum on the Senate floor, so I won’t use them today,” responded Luján, who hours earlier characterized the GOP’s position on food stamps as “bulls***.”

Following his broadside on the floor, Thune told reporters that he expected to soon meet with rank-and-file Senate Democrats on ending the shutdown. “They’re looking for an off-ramp,” he told reporters, according to Politico. “What I told them all along is, as soon as they’re ready to open up the government, that we will ensure that they have a process whereby they can have the chance to get their legislation voted on, their policies voted on. I think they’ve become more interested, and I hope that’s continues.”

The tense exchange marked the latest episode of heightened partisan tensions over the expiring aid received by 42 million Americans.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER