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Happens right now, we don t expect that it will, this could put in jeopardy congress repealing it in the future because this is towards the end of the democrats lame duck session. next year, republicans will have control of the house. republicans will have more seats in the senate. that s why what we are watching on the senate floor right now is so, so critical to the fate of repealing the don t ask, don t tell policy. on the question that you asked me, which is about negotiations got a little heated. this has been a roller coaster. this is a vote that the democrats had said that they were going to take yesterday. they delayed that because talks with republican senator susan collins, who was the one senator on the senate armed services committee to vote for the repeal, they were going pretty well. she was saying she would vote we re talking about just to begin debate on the defense bill, that she would vote for it if she was given ample debate time and ample amendment time on ....
U.s. senate voting on don t ask, don t tell. live pictures from the floor there of the senators voting. i want to bring in dana bash. dana, i understand you have color about some negotiations involving a republican senator from maine, susan collins, and harry reid. what happened? that s right. i ll tell you about that. we should let our viewers know that this is incredibly important and critical to the the fate of repealing the don t ask, don t tell policy. this is it. barring anything that we don t think could happen, this is going to be the vote that will determine whether or not the united states senate actually goes forward and repeals this. if it doesn t go through, which we unless something crazy ....
Senators who are on the record saying they believe that this policy should be repealed. susan collins is one. scott brown of massachusetts is another. and lisa murkowski of alaska is the third. scott brown, i just saw him on the way over here. he said he s going to it vote no on this. why? because of the process. he believes not only that there should be more time for debate, but he is one of lots of senate republicans, all of them, who signed a letter saying well, yeah, and signed a letter saying they wouldn t do this until the senate takes up tax cuts. that s another reason why you ll see a lot of blame around, questions for senator harry reid abut why he didn t wait on this, take up the tax cut bill, and probably get more votes. so that s why this is a very interesting and questionable and frankly dramatic vote that we re seeing now. dana, just to back up and explain specifically what s happening as we re watchic thng these pictures on the floor, this is so historic. how long wi ....
Shortly. but i think that the the drama of this really should be underscored, the fact that this vote was it was a surprise that the senate majority leader said he was going to take this yesterday. then he decided to wait because negotiations were going pretty well with the one senate republican who was talking to him. and then overnight, the senate majority leader decided, you know what, i m not going to go ahead with this. it is important to underscore that it is possible, it is possible that that supporters of repealing this don t ask, don t tell policy could have gotten the 60 votes needed. we re not sure, but it s possible they could have when you look at where people stand on repealing the policy. if they would have waited until after doing the tax bill. reid went on the senate floor, he gave a lengthy speech and said that he doesn t believer that republicans are going to help him out on this and there will be other delaying tactics if he doesn t go for this now. already ge ....