Sen. Jones: ‘McConnell Is Playing Political Games — We Shouldn’t Have Taken This Vote’

Monday on CNN, Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) of “playing political games” by having procedural votes on the coronavirus stimulus bill.

Jones said, “No, I don’t think the Democrats are playing games at all any more than Senator McConnell is playing political games. We shouldn’t have taken this vote, Jake. Everybody knew this vote was going to fail. It should have just stayed behind closed doors and continue to work until we have a deal because when we have a deal, you’re going to get overwhelming Republican and Democratic support, and we’re going to waive a lot of the procedural rules, we’re not going to have 30 hours of debate if we can get this deal done.”

He added, “We’re going to get it done, we’re going to send it to the House and hope they can get it done quickly and get it to the President’s desk. This is just not the way the Senate is supposed to operate. We should not be doing things like this and taking these silly votes that are going to fail. We need to continue to work. And by the way, the other thing, the biggest complaint I’ve got, no one should see my vote today on a motion to proceed, saying we’ve got great progress, no one should see that as a vote of yes on a final package. The problem is we don’t know what it’s looking at. We are wanting to proceed on something we don’t even know what it is. It’s just games on both sides right now, to be honest with you.”

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