On September 18, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) launched a decision that requires blocking President Donald Trump’s 50 p.c tariff on Brazil. And when the decision got here up for a vote on Tuesday evening, October 28, it handed the U.S. Senate in a 52-48 vote.
A lot of the “yea” votes got here from Democrats, however 5 Republicans voted “yea” as effectively: Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, Maine’s Susan Collins, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, and North Carolina’s Thom Tillis.
MSNBC’s Steve Benen, in an October 29 column, cites that vote as a uncommon instance of a Trump coverage getting a bipartisan “rebuke.”
“To recap briefly,” Benen explains, “Trump introduced 50 p.c tariffs on Brazil in July, to not tackle a commerce deficit — the U.S. really has a $7.4 billion commerce surplus with Brazil — however as a result of Brazil’s prison justice system was pursuing a case towards former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom Trump likes. The transfer marked the primary time a U.S. administration tried to leverage commerce coverage to derail a prison case in a sovereign nation….. Three months later, a bipartisan Senate majority voted to reject the Republican’s gambit.”
The truth that 5 Senate Republicans voted “yea” on a decision launched by Democrat Kaine, Benen emphasizes, will not be insignificant.
“There can be some who take a look at the vote complete and scoff: There are 53 Senate Republicans, and 48 of them selected to associate with a White Home commerce coverage that is ridiculous on its face,” Benen argues. “Requested earlier than the vote why extra of his GOP colleagues weren’t keen to assist the measure, Paul advised The New York Instances, ‘Concern.’ However I want to see the glass as half-full. In April, when a slim, bipartisan majority within the Senate rejected Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a Politico report summarized it as ‘essentially the most vital rebuke to Trump that congressional Republicans have but mustered in his second time period.’ And now, it is occurred once more.”
The “Rachel Maddow Present” producer continues, “Certainly, for the reason that vote in April superior with 51 votes, the vote on the Brazil coverage is arguably an much more vital rebuke, because it handed with a barely bigger majority…. The unhealthy information is that the sensible implications of the developments are more likely to be restricted: The measure now heads to the Republican-led Home, which now not does any work and is all however sure to disregard the decision, even when it will definitely returns.”
Steve Benen’s full MSNBC column is out there at this hyperlink.
