President Trump’s nominee for FBI Director, Kash Patel, overcame a procedural hurdle tonight in the Senate with a vote along party lines.
The vote was 48-45 with seven not voting. No Democrats vote ‘aye’ and no Republicans voted ‘no’.
To be clear, this was not the cloture vote. That will happen Thursday. This was just a procedural vote to begin debate of Patel’s confirmation.
So don’t make anything of the fact that McConnell voted to begin debate. He likely won’t vote to confirm Patel.
The roll call is here if you want to view it, but it’s pretty meaningless as an indicator. The cloture vote will be a better indicator but it’s not perfect either, as McConnell normally votes to end cloture but ‘no’ on confirmation.