Sorry, Ms. Bitecofer, that’s not how this works.

Gotta say, that @lisamurkowski broke ranks on Gupta AFTER McConnell publicly pledged 0 GOP votes…That’s not nothing

— Rachel Bitecofer 📈🔭🍌 (@RachelBitecofer) April 22, 2021

Sen. McConnell is very good at counting votes. He knew that he didn’t have the votes to stop Vanita Gupta’s nomination, as Vice-President Harris would break the tie. Sen. Cornyn had stalled as long as he could, and it was over.

So he allows Sen. Murkowski to vote with the Democrats (and denies Harris the opportunity to break the tie) to make Murkowski look like the “principled moderate.”