Vice President Vance casts tie-breaking Senate vote to kill bipartisan effort to rebuke Trump’s trade policy

By Morgan Rimmer, Ted Barrett and Manu Raju, CNN

(CNN) — Vice President JD Vance late Wednesday cast a tie-breaking vote to kill a bipartisan effort to rebuke President Donald Trump’s tariffs in the Senate.

Earlier in the evening, the Senate rejected the resolution that would have effectively blocked the president’s global tariffs by revoking the emergency order Trump is using to enact them. Two senators who were set to vote for the resolution, GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell and Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, were absent, allowing the resolution to fail 49-49.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune then moved to ensure that tariff opponents were unable to bring their resolution back up for consideration at a later date, forcing Vance to travel to Capitol Hill to break another tie.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who co-sponsored the resolution to block the tariffs, argued that Vance needing to come break the tie works in backers’ favor.

“They are so dead set on this tariff idiocy that is wrecking the economy that they’re going to bring the vice president over to completely own it. Great, let them do it. Let them do it,” he said. “The American public needs to know who to blame for this. And they are showing everybody tonight who is to blame for this.”

A McConnell spokesman said Wednesday that the senator “has been consistent in opposing tariffs and that a trade war is not in the best interest of American households and businesses. He believes that tariffs are a tax increase on everybody.”

Even had there not been key absences and the resolution been adopted, the resolution was dead on arrival in the House. There, Speaker Mike Johnson earlier this year tucked a provision into a rule to prohibit consideration of the measure until September 30.

A number of Republicans – including Sens. Rand Paul, who cosponsored the resolution, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski – had earlier expressed support for the effort. But its backers faced a number of absences in the chamber and were unable to pull together the needed votes Wednesday.

The Senate moved earlier this month to symbolically condemn Trump’s tariffs on Canada, and House Republicans used the same procedural tactic to ensure that resolution couldn’t be considered in their chamber.

The president, for his part, has remained defiant in the face of congressional criticism, previously vowing to veto any such resolution if necessary.

This headline and story have been updated with additional developments.

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