What’s John Thune’s Major Malfunction?

The Republican Senate majority leader promised a vote on the SAVE Act more than two weeks ago, but it’s been crickets ever since.

How do you know when you’ve been in Washington too long? When you stop doing the people’s business and start trotting out nerdy terms like “paid influencer ecosystem,” that’s when.

Fellow Patriots, I give you Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the living embodiment of the do-nothing, go-along, get-along Swamp rat. It’s been well over two weeks since our supposed Senate leader promised a vote on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, and we’re still waiting. And waiting.

Fifty Senate Republicans who say they support the bill are also waiting. Beyond that, we’re waiting for Thune to force the Democrats to demonstrate the courage of their convictions — to scuttle this wildly popular voting-integrity legislation the old-fashioned way, via the real filibuster, the talking filibuster.

Yesterday, as the Washington Examiner reports, Thune tsk-tsked the heat he’s been feeling from conservatives over his deliberate slow-walking of the SAVE Act, chalking it up to a “paid influencer ecosystem,” whatever the heck that is.

“Having studied it, researched it pretty thoroughly,” droned Thune, “you have to show me how, in the end, it prevails and succeeds. Because I think what has been promised out there is that it would actually, in the end, get an outcome, and I find it very hard to see that based on actual past experience.”

Blah, blah, blah. Is Thune really afraid of facing a barrage of amendments and procedural votes from the Democrats? Because if he is, he ought to resign as leader and hand over the duties to someone with a spine and a set of onions.

Thune says he can’t “guarantee” a particular outcome, but that’s a straw man. No one is demanding a particular outcome. What we’re demanding is action. We’re demanding that the Republicans fight tooth and nail for this indisputably good and popular and critical legislation.

Think about it: In a republic, nothing is more critical than free, fair, honest, and trustworthy elections. And the SAVE Act checks those boxes by requiring voters to prove their citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections and to show a photo ID before casting a ballot. These two measures are wildly popular with the American people. According to left-leaning Pew Research, photo ID enjoys 95% support from Republicans and 71% support from Democrats. And it’s not just some outlier from Pew. A recent Fox News poll found that 84% of respondents favor a valid photo ID as proof of citizenship before voting. And Gallup says 84% of Americans favor photo ID.

As CNN data guru Harry Enten puts it, “The bottom line is this: Voter ID is NOT controversial in this country. A photo ID to vote is NOT controversial in this country. It is not controversial by party, and it is not controversial by race. The vast majority of Americans agree.”

But still, Thune resists: “What I’ve said before is, you have to have unified support, not only in support of the ultimate goal, which is the SAVE America Act, but on the process to be able to defeat amendments that would undo the legislation in the first place. And it is a — we can’t find a piece of legislation in history that’s been passed that way.”

Not a single piece of legislation in history? Thune must’ve flunked history. Because as Thune’s fellow senator, Utah’s Mike Lee, points out, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was ultimately passed despite an honest-to-goodness 14-hour filibuster by former Klansman and longtime Democrat Robert Byrd.

Indeed, we should rebrand this legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 2026. Or maybe the Voting Rights Act of 2026. And we should force the Democrats to oppose it.

Now, it’s certainly true that Senate Democrats might ultimately scuttle the SAVE Act by way of an old-fashioned filibuster. Maybe, as my colleague Nate Jackson suggests, some true-believing Democrat will fasten on an extra-absorbent pair of Depends and have at it. (Looking at you, Spartacus.)

But this much is also certainly true: The SAVE Act will never pass if Leader Thune simply sits there with his thumb in his mouth and his booger finger jammed knuckle-deep into his nose — which is precisely what he’s doing now.

Heck, while Thune has been dragging his feet in DC, the good citizens of his home state of South Dakota passed their own version of the SAVE Act.

President Donald Trump, whose political instincts are nearly always perfect, might’ve gotten it wrong yesterday when he said at the House GOP’s annual issues conference in Florida that passing the SAVE Act “will guarantee the midterms.” He added, “If you don’t get it, big trouble.”

Again, I think Trump’s political instincts are exquisite, but I think the way you apply maximum pressure to the Democrats is to refrain from making this a partisan issue. Instead, we on the Right should continually hammer this legislation as having overwhelming bipartisan support.

I smell a rat in all this, though. And the rat’s name is Mitch McConnell. In recent days, Trump and his fellow Republicans have accused the ancient establishmentarian of gumming up the works in the Senate. McConnell’s Trump derangement is no secret, nor is his senatorial tutelage over the years of … John Thune.

PJ Media’s Matt Margolis puts it bluntly: “Is John Thune screwing over our country?”

Don’t get me wrong. During normal times, I’m thrilled to tell members of The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body™ to just sit around and harrumph every once in a while. After all, if they’re not passing legislation, it means they’re not making mischief, and they’re not making our federal government any bigger. Don’t just do something; stand there! and all that.

These aren’t normal times, though. What we have in the SAVE Act is a piece of legislation that, if passed, will subordinate the Democrats to the Rule of Law and make it much harder for them to cheat in federal elections. And that’s why they oppose the SAVE Act.

John Thune needs to stop whining about some imaginary “paid influencer ecosystem” and force a real filibuster. And he needs to do it most ricky-tick.

Or his fellow Senate Republicans need to find a new leader.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/125737-whats-john-thunes-major-malfunction-2026-03-10

Trump Is ‘Fundamentally Reshaping’ the Media Landscape to ‘Smash the Facade’ of Legacy Media

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s approach to confronting legacy media outlets has triggered widespread upheaval across the American news industry.

At a policy discussion hosted by Breitbart News on March 10, Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle asked Carr about criticism he has received.

“We’ve seen a number of different people across the establishment media. They’ve called you Trump’s pit bull in the media. We’ve seen South Park talk about you. We’ve seen all sorts of different things,” Boyle said.

Boyle then asked Carr to explain how he approaches his role as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in the administration of Donald Trump and what he hopes to accomplish in the position.

“President Trump is fundamentally reshaping the entire media ecosystem,” Carr responded. “He’s doing it in ways that most people don’t even understand. They think it’s, you know, very sort of direct, secret things that are happening. That’s not it at all.”

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Carr said the shift began with how Trump engaged with the national press during his political campaigns.

“When President Trump ran, particularly this most recent time, and every other time as well, he really ran directly at the legacy national news media,” Carr stated. “For so long, politicians just accepted the narrative that they were handed down, and they didn’t want to fight that narrative. They didn’t want to push back. They didn’t have their own sufficiently big soapbox to push back. They just took the narrative.”

Carr contended that Trump’s approach changed the dynamic between elected officials and major media organizations.

“President Trump fundamentally disrupted that,” Carr remarked. “He set the terms of the debate. And so many politicians are used to the terms of the debate being dictated to them by legacy media.”

“And once President Trump did that, he really just smashed this facade that those gatekeepers get to control what we think and what we say,” Carr added.

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Carr pointed to several developments he said illustrate changes occurring within the media industry.

“You start to see the consequences of him deciding that, you know, the legacy media is the emperor with no clothes,” Carr remarked. “You see all sorts of changes now, right? NPR defunded. PBS defunded. A lot of these legacy reporters from Jim Acosta to Don Lemon losing their jobs. You see a lot of change and upheaval in the media ecosystem.”

“Again, I think it goes back fundamentally to Trump saying you don’t get to set the narrative anymore,” Carr concluded.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/03/10/brendan-carr-trump-is-fundamentally-reshaping-the-media-landscape-to-smash-the-facade-of-legacy-media/

Canadian Police Investigate After U.S. Consulate Hit by Gunfire

Canadian Police are investigating a “national security incident” after multiple shots were fired at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

At least one handgun was discharged multiple times at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, Canada, around 0430 ET. Canadian police said in a press conference updating on progress with their investigation on Tuesday morning that they were seeking more information about two men who drove up to the consulate in a white Honda CRV and got out of the vehicle before shooting at the building.

A police spokesman said “two individuals emerged and discharged what appeared to be a handgun… there was a handgun that was discharged, and both individuals were involved in that discharge… multiple shots fired, more than one”. They appealed for anyone who may have been driving in the area at the time to share dashcam footage with officers.

“Shell casings” were retrieved from the scene.

The spokesman said given the U.S. Consulate is a “highly secure, highly fortified” building, although there is evidence of a bullet impact on the front door, nobody inside was injured and it appears those inside may not have even been aware of the shooting at the time. The alarm was not raised with police until approximately an hour after the shooting.

Police said they couldn’t yet determine whether the shooting was linked to rising tensions in the Middle East, but made clear it was their working hypothesis that this may be the case, and said security to the U.S. and Israeli consulates and embassies in the country was being increased in response.

The consulate shooting follows a spate of shootings at synagogues in the Toronto area in the past week, and Canada’s CBC notes Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow went so far as to suggest a link between the attacks. The police press conference stated that it was too early to say there was definitely a link, but nevertheless conceded: “[there have been] similar types of events, extremely serious shootings at Synagogues and this very much informs how we will approach this matter as well”.

As of the latest police updates on the three Synagogue shootings, they involved individuals driving up to the synagogues before opening fire then driving away, and that no suspects had been identified.

The apparent attack on the U.S. Consulate in Toronto follows a terrorism investigation into an explosion at the U.S. Embassy in Norway over the weekend. A man is understood to have thrown a device at the building and then fled.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2026/03/10/canadian-police-investigate-after-u-s-consulate-hit-by-gunfire/

Jackson-Kavanaugh tensions surface in candid exchange over Supreme Court 'shadow docket'

The justices' dispute comes as the high court has ruled in favor of the Trump administration most of the time on emergency cases

Supreme Court Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Brett Kavanaugh had a dispute over the high court’s approach to its emergency docket in a rare, candid discussion during an event Monday night.

Jackson, a Biden appointee, signaled that the high court’s willingness to side with President Donald Trump most of the time when it comes to the emergency docket, sometimes known as the "shadow docket," was a "problem." The liberal justice is one of three, and all have frequently sided against Trump in emergency decisions, which have often broken 6-3 in favor of the president.

"The administration is making new policy ... and then insisting the new policy take effect immediately, before the challenge is decided," Jackson said, according to reports from The Associated Press and NBC News. "This uptick in the court’s willingness to get involved in cases on the emergency docket is a real unfortunate problem."

SUPREME COURT'S EMERGENCY DOCKET DELIVERS TRUMP STRING OF WINS AS FINAL TESTS LOOM

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Jackson said: "It's not serving the court or this country well."

Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, countered that the Supreme Court’s approach to emergency requests was not unique to the Trump administration and that the high court handled the Biden administration the same way despite there being fewer interim requests under the former president.

Kavanaugh said presidents "push the envelope" more with executive orders because Congress is passing less legislation.

"Some are lawful, some are not," Kavanaugh said, later adding, "None of us enjoy this."

The pair spoke in a courtroom during an annual lecture honoring the late Judge Thomas Flannery of the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C., while several federal judges, including high-profile ones like Judge James Boasberg, looked on.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh speaks. 

Jackson’s criticism is not new; she has been perhaps the most vocal dissenter in emergency docket cases.

In August, she lambasted the Supreme Court majority for "lawmaking" from the bench in a dissent to an emergency decision to temporarily allow the National Institutes of Health’s cancellation of about $738 million in grant money.

"This is Calvinball jurisprudence with a twist. Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules. We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins," Jackson wrote.

The Trump administration has faced hundreds of lawsuits and adverse rulings in the lower courts, and the Department of Justice’s solicitor general’s office, which represents the government before the Supreme Court, often does not elevate cases to that level.

JACKSON'S SCATHING DISSENT LEVELS PARTISAN CHARGE AT COLLEAGUES AFTER HIGH-PROFILE RULING

The Supreme Court is seen, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. 

Such emergency requests allow the government to bypass the lengthy court process, involving extensive briefings and oral arguments, to seek immediate relief in the face of restraining orders and injunctions in the lower courts.

The Trump administration has brought about 30 emergency applications to the Supreme Court and secured victories about 80% of the time, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Through the emergency docket, the Supreme Court has greenlit Trump's mass firings and curtailed nationwide injunctions. The high court has also cleared the way for deportations and immigration stops viewed as controversial by critics of the administration. The justices have also found that the government can, for now, discharge transgender service members from the military.

But Trump has not won out all the time by taking this route. The justices required the administration to give more notice to alleged illegal immigrants being deported under the Alien Enemies Act and agreed with a lower court that the president improperly federalized the National Guard as part of his immigration crackdown in Chicago.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jackson-kavanaugh-tensions-surface-candid-exchange-over-supreme-court-shadow-docket

GOP Rep. Andy Ogles Sparks Major Uproar With a Highly Controversial Tweet About Muslims Following Islamist Terror Attack in NYC – Ogles Fires Back with Spicy Response

Portrait of Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN). 

A Tennessee Republican congressman sparked widespread fury across social media after weighing in on last weekend’s Islamic terrorist attack in New York City, but he is not backing down one inch.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, two male Islamist terrorists threw a homemade bomb in an attempt to kill protesters at an anti-Islam rally outside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s official residence on Saturday. The bomb was laced with metal and powerful explosives, according to the New York Times.

Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident.

One of the men screamed “Allahu Akbar!” while getting arrested.

The two thugs responsible for the terror attack, 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, were charged </> in federal court yesterday with attempting to support ISIS.

A furious Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) responded to the terror attack with an extremely provocative comment: Muslims do not belong in the United States.

“Muslims don’t belong in American society,” Ogles wrote. “Pluralism is a lie.”

Ogles’ tweet prompted a series of furious responses from leftist Democrats, including elected officials. Some demanded that Ogles be expelled from Congress, while others demanded the GOP denounce his remarks.

“To Hakeem Jeffries, Gavin Newsom, and the high-ranking Democrats flooding X to condemn me,” Ogles said. “A Muslim shot and killed three Americans in Texas. Two Muslims tried to blow up New York City…again.”

“Meanwhile, all DHS counterterrorism programs are unfunded because you shut them down.”

Ogles added that no one would be saying a word if he said the same thing about Christians.

“My comments wouldn’t even be a news story if I had said this about Christians,” Ogles wrote. “Please spare me your moral outrage. Cry harder. ”

“Christ is King.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/03/gop-rep-andy-ogles-sparks-major-uproar-highly/