Asked by a reporter on Capitol Hill how concerned he was about the president’s remarks on the Kennedy Center, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he hoped they were “designed to get people to come to the table and work something out on everything related to the Kennedy Center, including the name,” and that he would be “very, very surprised if that actually happened.” Asked whether Congress would try to stop it, he said “I hope we won’t get to that point.”
Why we used this label
Thune says he hopes the president’s remarks are meant to bring people to the table on “everything related to the Kennedy Center, including the name,” and that he would be “very, very surprised if that actually happened,” which discounts the likelihood of the outcome named in the remarks without rejecting or endorsing the position. The closest competing label is “Challenged the characterization”, since he offers a reading of the remarks as aimed at getting people to the table. That loses because he frames it as a hope rather than disputing how the remarks are described, and his operative point is that the outcome is unlikely, which downplays its likely consequence.
