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Trump faithful out for blood after Rick Scott loses Senate majority vote
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Trump faithful out for blood after Rick Scott loses Senate majority vote

Top figures in the MAGA world complained Wednesday that their choice for Senate majority leader, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, did not pass the first round of voting.

Those upset took to social media and their podcasts to whine and even threaten to impeach Senator John Thune (R-SD) – who was elected Senate leadership by secret ballot – if he did not come into compliance with all requests from Donald Trump.

“If he does not support President Trump in the next 30 to 45 days to fill President Trump’s Cabinet, we will impeach him,” Charlie Kirk said on Real America’s Voice, referring to Thune.

Charlie Kirk speaks on stage on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Charlie Kirk was one of the speakers at the RNC this summer.

Kirk, of course, has no actual authority to remove Thune from Senate leadership. However, the right-wing activist and founder of Turning Point USA has a significant following in the MAGA world.

The same goes for ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon – who hosts the daily podcast War room-was also checked due to Thune’s victory. He clearly stated on his podcast after it emerged that Scott had lost: “The victory is not ours. I don’t care how you dress it up, it’s not that.

Others who lamented Scott’s defeat included Rogan O’Handley, the right-winger who runs the pro-Trump X account “DC Draino,” which has two million followers. “Every senator who voted for Rick Scott must publicly acknowledge this,” he said. “Then we can find out who the conniving perpetrators are.”

O’Handley added in a separate post: “MAGA is p—ed.”

Ryan Fournier, the 28-year-old founder of Students for Trump, called the Senate leadership performance “ridiculous.” Right-wing influencer Savanah Hernandez went so far as to suggest that senators who did not vote for Scott should be removed from office somehow.

“We need to know which senators voted for Thune and Cornyn,” Hernandez wrote to her 600,000 followers on X. “The American people wanted Rick Scott in power and we made that clear on November 5th. This was an extremely important vote and the senators who voted against Scott must be impeached.”

Conservative activist Joey Mannarino agreed, writing, “If we find out you didn’t pick Rick Scott to be Senate Majority Leader, we will absolutely get you out.”

Thune, 61, is a former Trump foe who edged out Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) in the second round of the leadership vote. He will now take over the position that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) held for almost two decades.

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Senator John Thune (R-SD) will be the majority leader in the Senate.

Thune’s victory signals that Trump’s hold on Republican lawmakers may not be as ironclad as he had hoped. Although Thune and the newly elected president appear to have largely repaired their relationship, Thune famously said in 2020 that Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to Biden would be “like a bull’s-eye.” Trump responded by calling him a “RINO,” which is short for “Republican In Name Only.”

Trump, who needs help from the Senate majority leader to get a slew of presidential appointments confirmed, has never publicly endorsed or talked about Scott’s leadership bid. However, those close to Trump, such as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, made it clear that the MAGA movement wanted Scott in the position.

The secret voting process means that we will probably never know for sure how every senator voted. However, some shared their views ahead of the vote, with Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) each supporting Scott.