EXCLUSIVE — Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) doesn’t have much to say to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), his Democratic counterpart, these days and, more strikingly, believes the way out of the shutdown doesn’t involve Schumer at all.

“I’ve always felt like the solution to this isn’t going to come from him. It’s going to come organically from rank-and-file Democrats who eventually just decide this is not the path they want to be on,” Thune told the Washington Examiner in an interview this week from his leadership suite.