Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is kicking the GOP while it’s down, calling its “Big Beautiful Bill” civil war, “One Big Mess.”
Republicans are torn over whether to back President Trump’s tax and immigration bill, with some senators even trashing it publicly. North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis raged on the Senate floor Sunday night that it “betrays” promises made by the president, highlighting steep cuts to Medicaid.
In response, Trump attacked him on Truth Social, calling him a “talker” and a “complainer.” After bullying Tillis into announcing that he would not run for re-election, he also vowed primary challenges against any other Republican who may dare to stymie the passage of the bill as it enters another round of voting.
Speaking on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on Monday evening, Schumer said GOP Senators “don’t have the guts to buck Trump.”
“They’re slowing things down because right now, they’re one big mess. They’ve made a lot of promises, contradictory promises to different parts of their caucus,” he said.
“A lot of people are squirming because they know how unpopular — what Trump calls the big, beautiful bill, we call the big, ugly betrayal. They’re squirming. They know their public doesn’t like it.”
He highlighted the dissent from Thom Tillis and said that many Senators silently agree with the statesman.
“What Tillis said out loud, I’d say a majority of senators, Republican senators, believe—that this bill is very bad for their states, but they don’t have the guts to buck Trump, they’re afraid of Trump,” Schumer told O’Donnell.
“So they’re in an uncomfortable position, they’re fighting with each other, and they’re slowing everything down because they don’t have a bill yet. At this late hour, they still don’t have the bill.”
On Monday morning, the Senate began a “vote-a-rama” on proposed amendments to the bill, but by Tuesday morning Majority Leader John Thune did not appear to have the 51 votes necessary to proceed the bill to a final vote because of Republican holdouts, according to ABC News.
Tillis and Kentucky’s Rand Paul are expected to vote down the bill, citing concerns regarding Medicaid and the ballooning debt ceiling the package promotes.
Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins are doubts for Thune, and their votes could be critical as the bill can only afford to lose three votes during the final voting phase. Fiscal hawk Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has also raised concerns about the bill’s impact on the deficit.
Republicans narrowly advanced the spending package in a 51-49 vote Saturday night.
Senators Mike Lee and Rick Scott, of Utah and Florida, have not yet received a response to a proposed amendment to the bill, which reduces extra funding for Medicaid. This could color their decision regarding which way they vote.
“Republicans need to stay tough and unified during the home stretch, and we are counting on them to get the job done,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.
Trump has imposed a July 4 deadline on the bill. Tillis labeled this “artificial” and said Republicans are rushing the process.
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