The party needed all of its members in town for the vote in order for it to pass, but Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) was in South Korea for a conference, putting them a vote down. Leadership knew about his trip for weeks ahead of time.
“I don’t think anything went wrong. We just needed more votes,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said. “We weren’t sure how the votes would come down, but we knew there would be absences.”
“It was a win-win either way. If we won the vote, it was a good win like we won the Canada vote,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters Thursday.
You’d think a competent party would find a different whip after messing up like that, but with the Democrats you can just keep that job regardless of what happens.
Also, as a larger point, it’s 2025, allowing members of Congress to securely vote remotely should be a thing now, stop running the US like it’s still 1800.
He has been the whip since 2005. He has overseen a fuckload of Ls.
Assuming that they were Ls.
Must be a DEI hire, because he definitely didn’t get it on merit.