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.
I’m a little confused. If the resolution was to terminate the national emergency and stop the tariffs, why were Dems voting Nay and Republicans voting Yea?
Cuz it’s a motion to table a motion to reconsider terminating the national emergency by which Donny introduced the tariffs. Lots of double negatives here.