Sen­ate votes down failed bor­der deal in face of bipar­ti­san oppo­si­tion

The Sen­ate reject­ed a bipar­ti­san bor­der deal on Thurs­day in a vote that Repub­li­cans denounced as “polit­i­cal the­ater” ahead of the Novem­ber elec­tion.
The bor­der bill, orig­i­nal­ly tied to a larg­er pack­age on for­eign aid, failed on the Sen­ate floor in Feb­ru­ary, with all but four Repub­li­cans lin­ing up against it.
Sen­ate Democ­rats framed the sec­ond attempt, this time a stand­alone vote, as a chance to demon­strate Washington’s seri­ous­ness about get­ting bor­der secu­ri­ty done. Mean­while, Repub­li­cans regard­ed the move as designed to give polit­i­cal cov­er to vul­ner­a­ble Democ­rats up for reelec­tion.
Sim­i­lar to the Feb­ru­ary vote, Democ­rats saw a hand­ful of defec­tions, among them Lati­no and pro­gres­sive law­mak­ers who viewed the bill as too dra­con­ian. There were two new addi­tions on Thurs­day: Sens. Cory Book­er (D‑NJ) and Laphon­za But­ler (D‑CA).
In a dra­mat­ic rever­sal, Sen. James Lank­ford (R‑OK), the Repub­li­can who nego­ti­at­ed the bill with Sen­ate Democ­rats and the White House, vot­ed against …