'Complete lack of leadership': GOP lawmakers pushed into votes question party's strategy

Some Republicans questioned their own leadership Wednesday over GOP's response — or lack thereof — to Democrats' efforts to bring forth a slew of difficult and largely symbolic votes.

Republicans have said they feel recent votes involving the border and reproductive rights were mainly partisan efforts.

“We gave Republicans a second chance to show where they stand,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-NY) said last month following a vote on legislation that aimed to clamp down on the number of migrants who can claim asylum at the Mexico border. “Do they want to fix this so-called emergency or do they want to show blind allegiance to the former president even when they know he’s wrong?”

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Senate Democrats were also holding a vote Wednesday to move forward on a bill that would protect women's access to contraception, and plan to vote as soon as next week on ensuring access to in vitro fertilization. Neither are expected to pass.

It's no secret the votes come during a hotly contested election year, and the strategy to get Republicans on record on the issues led some to question the party's counterstrategy, Axios reported Wednesday.

"In my ideal world... we'd have 49 members voting on the motion to proceed," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told the news outlet. "And then we would put forth a lot of amendments to address the extreme position of the Democrats."

The perceived lack of a strategy seemed to irk Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), who said he supports Tillis' idea, and rebuked what he called a "complete lack of leadership" over the party's response to the Democrats' voting strategy.

"A half hour conversation organized a day before a vote like this is grossly inadequate, and I'm getting tired of it," Johnson said.