Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) shut down a proposal to force a Senate vote on the SAVE America Act, drawing pushback from fellow Republican Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who maintains the party still has ways to advance the bill.
The disagreement sparked online after Cornyn reposted a comment saying Senate Republicans could pass the legislation over Democrat objections.
“We’ve got 50 votes as of last week. That’s all we need. Force Democrats to hold a talking filibuster and then pass it with JD’s help. Include it in reconciliation vote by ignoring the advice of the parliamentarian. Or change the cloture threshold,” the post stated.
Cornyn rejected the idea, saying, “Not gonna happen, and every one (except the naive or misinformed) knows it.”
Lee later reposted Cornyn’s comment and pushed back on the Texas Republican’s claims.
“It could happen if we put the SAVE America Act on the floor with strong resolve to continue debating it until it passes,” Lee wrote. “I’m neither naive nor misinformed. I’m just unwilling to pretend we have no ability to avoid failure.”
Lee’s response came after Cornyn spent Thursday night and Friday morning trading shots with conservatives online. While Cornyn made it clear he actually co-sponsors the SAVE America Act and has voted for it before, he insisted on a dose of reality: as things stand right now, the bill simply doesn’t have the votes to clear the Senate.
“Mike, I am a co-sponsor and have repeatedly voted for this but you don’t have the votes,” Cornyn wrote in response to a post from Lee calling out Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) for not “putting in the hard work” to pass the bill.
Cornyn then defended Thune against criticism from some conservatives, saying the vote count was a matter of “math.”
“@LeaderJohnThune can’t change that. It is math. Try focusing on Democrats instead of Republicans. Republican on Republican attacks are hurting our chances to win the majority in November,” Cornyn added.
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