Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is warning he will use hardball floor tactics to force a vote on stalled attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch if Republicans don’t call her up for a vote “very soon.”

Because Lynch was approved by a Senate committee, her nomination could theoretically be called up by any senator with a majority vote, though such a move by anyone other than the majority leader is a serious breach of protocol. In a chamber where all senators wield significant power, great deference is usually paid to the majority party to set the Senate’s agenda.


But Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has tied Lynch’s nomination to a stalled trafficking bill, thereby delaying her confirmation and infuriating Democrats. Although talks picked up Thursday on how to resolve a dispute over the trafficking bill’s abortion language, which Democrats strongly oppose, an agreement remained elusive.

Lynch has now waited more than five months for a vote since being nominated on Nov. 8, 2014, and appears set to wait at least a few more days given the lack of a deal on the trafficking proposal.

Reid (D-Nev.) says he’s not willing to wait any longer, and he’s contemplating a unilateral move to commandeer the Senate floor.

“We’ve put up with this far too long, and we’re going to need to have a vote on her very soon that’s created by Mitch McConnell or I’ll create one. I can still do that,” Reid told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. “I know parliamentary procedure around here, and we’re going to put up with this for a little while longer but not much.”

Republicans scoffed at Reid’s threat. To force a vote on Lynch, the Nevada Democrat would have to get at least four Republicans to join with Democrats on a procedural vote to begin the process of calling up Lynch’s nomination, a steep but not impossible hurdle given that five GOP senators publicly support Lynch.

“He can’t force a vote on her. He would need 51 votes,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for McConnell. “Senate 101.”

But forcing the procedural vote, even if it failed, would amount to a major affront to McConnell. The two have been frequent parliamentary combatants over the years, punctuated by Reid’s unilateral change to the Senate rules governing confirmation of presidential nominees in November 2013. That moment is still rued in Republican circles as a major wound to the Senate as an institution. Reid taking control of the floor to force a vote on a nominee as the minority leader would only further strain the relationship between the longtime foes.

Reid’s threat came as both parties looked for a breakthrough on the trafficking bill that in turn would spring Lynch’s nomination. McConnell withdrew another doomed vote on the trafficking legislation Thursday morning, offering hope that lawmakers could resolve the impasse over “Hyde amendment” language that blocks money in the bill for abortion procedures has halted the legislation’s once bright chances of passage.

But shortly before McConnell canceled what would have been the fifth failed trafficking vote in a month, Reid said he took a stark warning to Republican senators.

“I had a conversation today with a number of Republicans and told them really to get [Lynch] done or I will make sure they will have an opportunity to vote against her,” Reid told Maddow.

Despite Reid’s tough talk, aides in both parties described constructive talks on Thursday afternoon, as the two sides try to pass legislation intended to aid victims of sexual slavery. But a deal remained elusive as senators prepared to head home for the weekend.

“We’re closer than we have been in the past,” said one Republican aide closely following the talks.

Democrats failed to notice the abortion restrictions until the bill came to the floor in March, and they’ve refused to advance the measure since then, grinding Senate floor action to a halt. Until there’s a deal on trafficking, a vote on Lynch’s nomination is essentially blocked as well, though Democrats say they refuse to acknowledge McConnell’s coupling of the two issues.

“We’re going to press for a vote for Lynch regardless, whether there’s a deal on this or not,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who on Thursday morning organized a news conference featuring two victims of sexual trafficking who pleaded with lawmakers to resolve their differences.

Publicly, senators appear dug in. In a rare display of passion on the Senate floor, McConnell denounced Democrats’ objections to the most recent offer from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), which routes a restitution fund for victims through the federal government’s general fund, where it is subject to “Hyde” restrictions on abortion spending. Republican leaders said Democrats just voted for similar language in a Medicare payments bill and accused them of flip-flopping on the trafficking proposal.

“It’s language they were perfectly happy endorsing again in another bill this week — but that bill was designed to help doctors, not children enslaved by sex traffickers,” McConnell said. “Do Democrats think doctors are worthy of their help, but not victims of modern slavery?”

Reid shot back that the impasse was a result of McConnell’s “botched handling” of the bill, though it was Democrats who had advanced the bill to the floor unanimously before they spotted the Hyde language and stiffened their opposition. Shortly before McConnell postponed the vote, Reid predicted it would fail.

Senate Republicans also released a Congressional Research Service document intended to rebut Democratic complaints about the expansion of abortion restrictions in the bill, a report that said Cornyn’s amendment was within recent congressional precedent by restricting federal funds on abortion procedures. But Democrats were not persuaded and accused the GOP of essentially conducting a “push poll” with CRS.

“The questions submitted to the Congressional Research Service asked the wrong questions. The majority leader and the assistant majority leader [Cornyn] took a good bipartisan piece of legislation and steered it right into the rocks,” Reid said. “We’re not going to bend on that issue … it’s not right. We do not need to expand Hyde.”

Shortly after Reid’s speech, Cornyn lamented: “The blame game is a world-class sport here.”