“And if this is America First, then America is doomed,” he said. Stewart said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lied to veterans by saying “we’re going to get it done” and then voted against the bill. Stewart also criticized Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican who is retiring at the end of his term. “Pat Toomey didn’t lose his job. He’s leaving,” Stewart said. “God knows what pot of gold he’s getting into to lobby this government to run more people. I’m used to all that, but I’m not used to the cruelty.” Stewart apologized for his foul language, but then described what the senators were voting against, with one veteran saying the bill “gives them health care, gives them benefits, lets them live from being addicted, prevents veterans to kill themselves”. “Senator Toomey’s not going to hear this because he’s not going to sit down with this man because he’s a coward. Do you hear me?” Stewart said. “None of them will hear it. And none of them will care.” “What makes the gut punch so much more devastating is that these people all came here so they could finally tell the men and –” Stewart said off camera before the press conference, pausing mid-sentence and tearing. “Their constituents are dying. And they’re going to do it after the break? You don’t tell their cancer to take a break, tell their cancer to stay home and go visit their families.” Toomey declined to comment on Stewart’s review, saying, “It’s not worth responding to.” He dismissed as “absurd” that objections to the bill were fueled by Democrats reaching a separate deal on a reconciliation bill. When asked for a response to Stewart’s comments, a spokesman for McConnell pointed to his remarks from Thursday morning. McConnell said he supported the “substance of the bill” but added “even with legislation this important and this expensive, the Democratic Leader has tried to block the Senate from any ostensibly fair amendment process.” McConnell argued that the legislation as written “could also allow Democrats to effectively spend the same money twice and allow hundreds of billions in new, unrelated spending on the discretionary side of the federal budget.” He pushed for a vote on an amendment from Toomey aimed at knocking costs out of the package. An earlier version of the legislation passed the Senate by an 84-14 vote in June, but Senate Republicans overwhelmingly voted down a procedural vote Wednesday night that would have ended debate on the bill and sent it to a final vote, with 25 Republicans of the Senate who supported the earlier version of the legislation by voting against the procedural vote. “This is complete bullshit,” said Democratic Sen. Kristen Gillibrand of New York. “This is the worst form of overt politicking I have literally ever seen. This is absolute BS. We have the votes.” Gillibrand says she will seek unanimous consent Thursday if she can get floor time, “and as many times as it takes to get it back on the floor.” “We had strong bipartisan support for this bill. And at the 11th hour, Senator Toomey decides he wants to rewrite the bill,” he said. “How he got 25 of his colleagues to change their vote, I have no idea. What the hell? How does this happen? How do you change your mind when you’re going to put in a law that will save lives? It makes no sense. It’s an outrage and there needs to be accountability.” . Susan Zeier, the mother-in-law of the late Sgt. 1st Class Heath Robinson, for whom the bill is named, called out the Republican senators who voted against the bill Wednesday night. “Senator Rob Portman was Heath’s senator,” Zaire said. “They voted against my family. They voted for us all to suffer.” “They don’t give a damn about veterans. And like someone said before, everybody has pictures of veterans on their Facebook pages on their website because they don’t support veterans. If you voted against this bill, don’t support veterans,” he said. “I’m done. And next time I’m back here, I better sign the damn bill at the White House.” A spokesman for Portman told CNN that the Ohio Republican plans to vote on the final passage of the bill, just as he did in the initial vote in June, but that he voted against the procedural motion on Wednesday as a way to express his displeasure with the way this. Democratic leadership had handled the amendment process. Pelosi said the move by Republicans to abruptly change course last night is “very hard to explain. It’s unethical that 80 percent of Republicans would say no.” “We all share the frustration and all that,” Pelosi said. “We’re not going to stop until we get the job done. I don’t know what we can do to get the Republicans to do the right thing.” The legislation had been negotiated between Senate Veterans Affairs Chairman Jon Tester, D-Montana, and the top Republican on the committee, Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas. After the failed vote, GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said Republicans supported the bill, but there was agreement on two amendment votes and that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer “opposed it,” prompting the floor riot. “The double-crossing Democratic leadership Senator Tester, Senator Moran, agreed that there would be two amendments, Senator Schumer agreed to the same thing. And then they denied it,” Cornyn said. Cornyn said Republicans hope to reduce mandatory spending in the final package now that the bill is deadlocked. “This bill will eventually pass, but it will be more fiscally responsible,” he said. “My view was this has to pass. I want it to pass. I want to do everything I can to see that it passes sooner rather than later. And I was willing to wait to try to fix the problems I see with the legislation.” , Moran said earlier Thursday.”And not all of my colleagues agree with that strategy.” Stewart rejected assurances from Republicans that the bill would eventually pass. “All cowards. All of them,” Stewart said. “Now they’re saying, ‘Well, that’s going to happen. Maybe after we get back from our summer vacation, maybe during lame duck” – because it’s Senate time. Do you realize you live here? Senate time is ridiculous. These mothers live to be 200. They’re turtles. They live forever and they never lose their jobs and they never lose their benefits and they never lose all that stuff. Well, it’s not Senate time. It’s man time. Cancer time.” This story has been updated with additional developments on Thursday. CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect Susan Zeier’s correct spelling. CNN’s Manu Raju, Ted Barrett and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.
