Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a video mocking Democratic senators for voting “present” on the Green New Deal.
McConnell, R-Ky., brought up the measure a vote on Tuesday, forcing members to go on record to either support or oppose the resolution.
Although several lawmakers, including 2020 Democratic candidates, have publicly voiced their support for the nonbinding resolution, not one voted in favor of it. Instead, 43 senators voted “present.”
The Senate voted on the Green New Deal today: 0 Yeas, 57 Nays, and 43 Senators voted PRESENT pic.twitter.com/nvcnXA7zPe
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) March 26, 2019
The video blasted out by McConnell features Democratic Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, as well as independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, among others, saying they would support, and vote “yes,” to the Green New Deal.
The video displays a photo of each lawmaker along with the text “voted present” after playing sound bites of he or she voicing support for the measure.
In total, 57 lawmakers voted against the resolution, 43 voted “present,” and none voted in favor of the Green New Deal. Even the co-sponsor of the bill, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., voted “present.”
Markey and freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., rolled out the Green New Deal earlier this year; a proposed overhaul of the U.S. economy and energy use that could cost into the tens of trillions of dollars.
Ocasio-Cortez claims that she urged Democrats to vote “present” because McConnell was trying to rush the deal on the floor.
[Opinion: On the Green New Deal, the Democrats are all yellow]
