Republican Skips Senate Vote to Support Trump

A U.S. senator from Alabama is taking heat from Republican colleagues after skipping a vote to block a controversial Biden appointee's nomination to attend a political event with former President Donald Trump after his Tuesday arraignment in a Miami courthouse.

Republicans were reportedly incensed after Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville was the lone Republican absent for a critical vote challenging Jared Bernstein to become the new chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, according to Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio.

Bernstein, one of Biden's top economic advisers, was a key architect of Biden's American Rescue Plan and has elicited reaction from Republicans over his alleged role in the country's persistently high inflation rate and for his support of the Green New Deal, a pro-green energy policy slate that has drawn opposition from lawmakers in fossil fuel-dominant states like West Virginia.

Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia was already expected to join Republicans in voting to block Bernstein's nomination Tuesday, a move that would have forced Vice President Kamala Harris to travel to Capitol Hill and break the tie.

But without Tuberville's vote, Democrats succeeded in an effort to invoke cloture on Bernstein's nomination by a 50-49 vote, all but clearing the way for his confirmation.

Newsweek reached out to Tuberville's office as well as that of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for comment.

The vote was a visible crack in the unified front Republicans had sought to hold as numerous Democratic caucus members—Manchin, Arizona independent Kyrsten Sinema and Montana Democrat Jon Tester—have occasionally split with party members ahead of what are expected to be contentious reelection campaigns in their home states in 2024.

Tuberville has notably pledged to block votes on all Biden nominations within the Department of Defense over the Pentagon's abortion policies for service members, potentially risking the department's ability to fill key positions across the military.

Ohio Republican Senator J.D. Vance said in a statement Tuesday he planned to begin a blockade against each of Biden's appointees to the Department of Justice over their prosecution of Trump for his alleged illegal removal of classified documents dating to his time in the White House.

But it also shows the powerful allure the former president has on the GOP—and the lucrative benefits of appearing behind him. As his Republican colleagues fumed in Washington, Tuberville's campaign put out a tweet announcing his plan to appear beside Trump at a Tuesday night event at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club in defiance of the federal case against him.

"I will be standing right next to President Trump tonight in total support," Tuberville's team wrote.

Prominently included beneath the tweet was a link to donate to Tuberville's campaign.