Senate Democrats didn’t have to wait until November. For two days this week, the party actually held a majority in the Senate.

That is because more Republican Senators than Democrats skipped the two days of work this week, according to a report in the Hill newspaper.

The Senate is not taking its usual August recess this year because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wanted to get more business done, especially on the backlog of President Donald Trump’s nominations.

There were nine Senate GOP absences on Wednesday and eight on Thursday, giving Democrats the majority.

McConnell was not pleased and criticized his colleagues in a private meeting for skipping votes, the report said.

Why didn’t the Senate Democrats take the opportunity to pass legislation, for instance pushing for access to the documents related to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh that they have been demanding?

Read:Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Kavanaugh to start Sept. 4

Because Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer doesn’t want it to come back to haunt him if he takes over the chamber in November, said James Wallner, a political science professor at American University.

“The majority and minority leaders cooperate to keep the Senate from being more free-wheeling than current circumstances suggest it would otherwise be without them. If senators engage more regularly in a free-wheeling and fluid process, leaders have less power,” Wallner said in an email.

Democrats also couldn’t vote down Kavanaugh because his nomination is still in committee, Wallner added.

And even if they could, the president would simply renominate Kavanaugh once 51 Republicans returned to town.