A group of Senate Democrats whose vote on Friday enabled the GOP’s funding bill to barrel forward stirred an internal Democratic debate with some accusing party leaders of not doing enough to oppose President Donald Trump’s MAGA agenda.
The key procedural vote unfolded Friday afternoon, with 10 Democratic senators voting in favor of cloture on the Republican funding bill – which calls for cutting $13 billion in domestic spending from the previous fiscal year while boosting defense spending by $6 billion.
Friday’s passage of the stopgap legislation effectively prevents a government shutdown.
But Democrats and other political observers still fumed about the lack of a cohesive strategy for pushing back on Republican efforts under the Trump administration.
“Ten Senate Democrats voted for cloture on the Republican CR, two more than what’s needed to move to final passage of the bill,” Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett wrote Friday on X. “Tough day to be a Democrat.”
“The way you beat a dictator is to oppose him. Not enable him,” the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project posted on X.
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“Hey Senate Democrats it’s not blowback from the base to vote yes for cloture it’s blowback from Allllll the Americans who can’t take cuts to vital services for the next 6 months and a free script for Trump to continue to rape the country,” Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) posted on X.
“One thing has been made super clear to me today, regardless of how this vote turns out,” according to a Bluesky post by attorney Amee Vanderpool, who authors the SHERO legal newsletter. “As a Democratic voter, who has been voting Democrat her whole adult life, I will only vote for a CERTAIN KIND of Democrat moving forward - moderation is over. Democrats need leaders who will fight.”
But Democratic strategist Mike Nellis, a former senior advisor to Kamala Harris, had a different message for his followers on X.
“I'm not happy with the outcome today on the CR, but I'm not going to dwell on it either,” Nellis said. “Trump is crashing the economy, laying off veterans, and trying to gut Social Security and Medicaid. Let's keep up the fight, stop what we can, and win the damn midterms.”