Senate Republicans want to spend August fighting to keep their majority and training their fire on Democrats. Donald Trump might have other plans.
The GOP’s desire to move on from a monthslong intraparty squabble over Trump’s No. 1 priority comes after senators left town early Saturday without advancing any form of his election security bill. Republicans don’t have the votes to pass the SAVE America Act and punted a framework for a third party-line spending bill that includes parts of the measure rather than have a failed vote.
Whether Trump accepts that explanation is entirely unclear.
Some Republicans are prepared for the mercurial president’s yearslong obsession with the election measure to resurface over the five-week recess and risk further inflaming the party’s base just months before GOP senators need those same voters to turn out.
“That would be consistent with his approach,” Sen. Mike Rounds said about the possibility that Trump could spend August criticizing Republicans for not passing the GOP election overhaul.
But, the South Dakota Republican added “we also know the votes aren’t there.”
The Senate’s moves over the weekend — which conservatives say were signed off on by Trump — likely push a third GOP spending bill until after the November election.
And instead of voting again on the SAVE America Act, which some Senate Republicans oppose due to its restrictions on mail-in voting, for example, Majority Leader John Thune called up a vote on a simpler voter ID bill offered by Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio that received unified GOP support.
Some, like Utah Sen. Mike Lee and other Senate conservatives, have vowed to renew their fight for the GOP bill once the chamber returns.
But privately some GOP senators believe for now their actions are not enough to satisfy Trump, given his relentless focus on it that has derailed congressional business in the House and Senate at several points this year.
One GOP senator, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said Thune wanted to hold a vote on the voter ID bill because “he thinks it will give us cover with the president.”
“I think he’s wrong,” the senator said, adding that Senate Republicans were “not factoring in the president’s reaction.”
Asked if he thought the Senate’s actions on the narrower voting bill would satisfy Trump, Thune said in an interview, “good question, but I think if they want votes, we’ll try and get votes,” adding, “I can’t guarantee outcomes.”
Trump and his allies’ continued focus on a bill that doesn’t have the votes to pass has frustrated Senate Republicans. Some Republicans also see Trump’s focus on the election bill as a back-door way for the president to accomplish what they think he really wants: getting rid of the filibuster, which a critical mass of Republicans also opposes.
“At the end of the day, all Republicans need to start getting satisfied with everybody pretty quickly, so that we can get the voters to be satisfied with us, and we maintain our majority at least in the Senate,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said when asked about Trump.
He added that “I hear what the administration is saying. I look at political data almost every day of the week. …I don’t see [the SAVE America Act] as one of the major factors that are going to get out to the polls.”
Senate Republicans suggested to Vice President JD Vance during a closed-door lunch last week that he could speak to the president on their behalf about the realities they were facing on the budget resolution and other parts of their pre-August to-do list, according to two attendees. Vance, however, said Senate Republicans should speak directly with the president themselves.
A day later, Senate conservatives spoke with Trump who, according to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), blessed punting a vote on a budget resolution into the fall rather than forcing one before leaving that would have failed.
Such a vote would’ve also put a target on the backs of the GOP senators who opposed it and, potentially, only further frustrated Trump, who has lashed out repeatedly in recent weeks at the Senate GOP’s inability to pass the elections measure.
“We’re in total agreement. There was no argument about it. …He would like a better reconciliation bill. That will take more time, so he was completely supportive,” Johnson said about the conversation with the president.
Thune, asked about the conservatives’ conversation with Trump, added that “I think everybody for the most part is on the same page.”
But Johnson’s conversation with Trump, Lee and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, comes after the Wisconsin senator acknowledged to reporters late last month that Trump “probably wouldn’t like that too much” if Republicans left town without advancing a budget resolution.
“Nor would I,” Johnson added. “Nor would a lot of people who support us.”
Read the full article here