Thune: Trump allies partaking in ‘cancel culture’ by punishing senators who voted to convict

GOP Sen. John ThuneJohn Randolph ThuneHillicon Valley: Biden to take ‘executive action’ to address SolarWinds breach | Facebook and Google respond to Australian proposed law | DOJ charges North Korean hackers with stealing .3 billion in cryptocurrency Congress makes renewed push on self-driving cars bill Juan Williams: Bring sanity back to the GOP MORE (S.D.) on Thursday blasted members of his party for rushing to censure the Republican lawmakers who voted in favor of convicting former President TrumpDonald TrumpFederal prosecutors investigated Proud Boys ties to Roger Stone in 2019 case: CNN Overnight Defense: One-third of service members decline coronavirus vaccine | Biden to take executive action in response to Solar Winds hack | US, Japan reach cost sharing agreement Trump ‘won’t say yet’ if he’s running in 2024 MORE, accusing them of engaging in “cancel culture.”

The Associated Press reported that Thune, the No. 2 Republican senator, defended his GOP colleagues who voted to convict Trump in the first interview he has had since he voted to acquit the former president.

“There was a strong case made,” Thune said. “People could come to different conclusions. If we’re going to criticize the media and the left for cancel culture, we can’t be doing that ourselves.”

As the AP notes, Thune has stood by House Republican Conference Chairwoman Rep. Liz CheneyElizabeth (Liz) Lynn CheneyMore people say Greene representative of Republican Party than Cheney: poll Republican Party going off the rails? Trump unloads on McConnell, promises MAGA primary challengers MORE (R-Wyo.) after she voted to impeach Trump. The Wyoming GOP voted to censure Cheney, and Republican lawmakers such as Rep. Matt GaetzMatthew (Matt) GaetzHogan praises Kinzinger in Time profile: ‘Adam proved the measure of his courage’ Gaetz suggests DeSantis could run for president in 2024 if Trump is out of the picture Scarborough says comparisons of Capitol riot to summer protests irrelevant MORE (Fla.) have led calls for Cheney to be removed from power.

According to the AP, Thune also indicated that he would assist candidates who “don’t go off and talk about conspiracies and that sort of thing.”

“At the grassroots level, there’s a lot of people who want to see Trump-like candidates,” Thune said. “But I think we’re going to be looking for candidates that are electable.”

Trump was acquitted last week for the second time after the Senate failed to secure the 67 votes needed to convict him. Seven Republican senators voted to convict, making it the most bipartisan impeachment vote in history.

Thune indicated last week that he was open to censuring Trump before the final impeachment vote was held.

“I know there are a couple of resolutions out there … I’ve seen a couple of resolutions at least that I think could attract some support,” Thune said to reporters at the time. 

The vote to censure Trump would require 60 Senate votes, meaning Democrats would need 10 Republicans to vote in favor of censure.

Democratic lawmakers have also discussed using the 14th Amendment to prevent Trump from running for federal office again in the future. However, Thune was less supportive of this strategy than he was of censure.

“I don’t think … those will go anywhere,” he said last week.