Senate Majority Leader scolded Democrats for trying to move the goalposts on a procedural vote Wednesday as they threaten to block the GOP policing bill from moving forward to debate.
Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said he didn’t understand the “bizarre new ultimatum” from Democrats, noting they had opportunities to block the bill on the back end to prevent it from passing if they didn’t like the amendment process.
“The Democratic leader is saying he will not let the Senate take up the issue of police reform at all unless I pre-negotiate with him in private and rewrite our starting point until he is satisfied,” Mr. McConnell said.
He also strongly condemned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s comments from earlier Wednesday morning on CBS News, when she said Republicans “trying to get away with murder, actually — the murder of George Floyd.”
“When our nation needs bipartisan solutions, they’re staging partisan theater. This is political nonsense elevated to an art form,” Mr. McConnell said. “The next time another appalling incident makes our nation sick to its stomachs in anger yet again, Senate Democrats can explain to the nation why they made sure the Senate did nothing.”
Republicans need seven Democrat votes to move their package forward in the debate process and toward the final passage. Blocking the bill will set up a stalemate on one of the biggest issues in the country headed into an election year, as Mr. McConnell said the House bill is not getting anywhere in the Senate.
House Democrats are set to pass their version on Thursday.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said the bill is too fundamentally flawed to be saved by an amendment process and called it a “fig leaf.”
“Republicans came in here, dropped the bill on the floor and said take it or leave it,” the New York Democrat said.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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