Desperate GOP bid to salvage MAGA agenda clashes with reality: 'We don't have the votes'

Some Republicans want to use the weeks after Tuesday’s midterms to jam through as much of President Donald Trump’s agenda as possible before Democrats potentially take over Congress. Their own leaders and colleagues doubt it’s going to happen, according to new reporting.

Midterm voters are widely expected to hand Democrats the House, and possibly the Senate. That would bring Trump’s legislative agenda “to a screeching halt” next year, The Hill reported Sunday. In response, one camp of Republicans is pushing to stretch out the lame-duck session to pass a third party-line reconciliation package that would need no Democratic votes.

“Republicans should unequivocally take immediate steps to pass a third reconciliation bill in the event we lose the House, and stay as long as it takes to get it done,” one House Republican told The Hill, speaking anonymously.

Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) offered a similar vision earlier in October.

“If we lose the House and the Senate, we should be here from Nov. 9 until Dec. 31 with no break at all,” Moreno told reporters. “Like, we’ll have turkeys here for Thanksgiving because we have to get this done.”

But Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) isn’t so sure.

“Right now, we don’t have the votes to get on a third recon bill [and a] budget resolution,” Thune told The Washington Sun this week, adding, “We might have them after [the midterms]. We don’t have it now, and we don’t know that we have the votes to defend against the poison pill Democrat amendments.”

Other Republicans are openly skeptical. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who is retiring and has clashed with Trump, said he’s “skeptical that a new reconciliation bill will pass.” He pointed to Trump’s posture toward Russia.

“The president’s decisions to favor Russia after Congress overwhelmingly voted for sanctions have greatly reduced the president’s leverage. Why add funding to an agenda that we disagree with?” Bacon said. “Some folks are going to blame Trump on election results, and that will factor in.”

A House GOP aide predicted that a bad night for Republicans would sap any appetite to help the White House.

“If it’s a blowout, they’re not going to want to owe anything to Trump or the White House. They’re probably going to be blaming them,” the aide told The Hill. “So they’re not going to want to help them out.”

Even if Republicans wanted to push ahead, the calendar is crowded. Before the holidays, Congress has to fund the government by mid-December to avoid a shutdown and pass the annual defense policy bill and a farm bill. The Senate also faces more than 30 pending Trump nominees awaiting floor votes and a permitting reform package.

“I think reconciliation is more unlikely than not,” a Senate Republican aide said.