John Thune to Brody File on Social Issues: 'I don’t think we can minimize those in the debate'

Rather than call a “truce” on social issues as possible presidential contender Mitch Daniels suggests, Sen. John Thune tells The Brody File that, “I don’t think we can minimize those in the debate.”

Thune is mulling a presidential run and The Brody File spent the whole day with him on Capitol Hill this past Tuesday. The Brody File received exclusive access into certain meetings Thune was holding that day. All of that will be part of a feature airing on The 700 Club in a few weeks.

Thune told me, “For any conservative or any Republican to get elected to office, you have to have the support and hopefully the energetic support of people who care passionately about the social issues. So, they’re important. And we shouldn’t trivialize that.”

Watch the clip below. The transcription is provided as well.

Mandatory courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File

David Brody: Mitch Daniels said this thing about “it’s time to call a truce on social issues,” because of everything going on fiscally in this country. What do you make of comments like that?

The reason I ask is because this is a very important issue to social conservatives. They don’t want any sort of truce, that you can walk and chew gum at the same time. What is your sense when you hear that type of language out there as it relates to what’s going on in our country fiscally and what’s going on with social issues.

Sen. John Thune: I think there are issues that people feel deeply about, and they’re profound issues. The issues of life. The issues of family. And I don’t think we can minimize those in the debate. For any conservative or any Republican to get elected to office, you have to have the support and hopefully the energetic support of people who care passionately about the social issues. So, they’re important. And we shouldn’t trivialize that.

With regard to the economic issues, fiscal issues, I think most social conservatives agree that we want a government that’s smaller, a government that’s responsive and accountable and all that. But, we also need to recognize that there are important issues that impact the basic glue, the foundation that holds our country together, and that comes down to the family unit. And we can’t ignore those.