Two House Democrats defect again on key vote for Trump agenda

House Democrats are fuming after a pair of centrist members once again defied their party leaders by voting to help advance a key White House priority — the second time in recent weeks .

The frustrations at those two Democrats — in particular, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who is seeking reelection in a battleground seat — are so high that they led to a confrontation on the House floor Tuesday evening between the Washington congresswoman and a top party leader, according to a person familiar with the exchange.

Rep. Katherine Clark, the No. 2 House Democrat and party whip, appeared to raise her voice in an intense conversation on the floor with Gluesenkamp Perez shortly after the vote, that person said. (The other Democratic defector, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, is retiring after his term and has faced less party blowback.)

The vote the two Democrats defected on is known as a rule vote. Typically, members of the minority party stick together to oppose these kind of procedural votes, which the majority party needs to bring bills to the floor.

Democrats are particularly irate given that one of the bills that can now be brought to the floor is a Russian sanctions bill that President Donald Trump himself has championed. The White House has made it such a high priority that some in the administration privately reached out to at least one House Democratic centrist, attempting to convince that member to support the GOP procedural vote in exchange for a community project back home, that member told CNN. That member ultimately opposed the GOP procedural vote.

While some Democrats support the Russia sanctions bill, they said they were not willing to back a GOP rule — and cross party leadership — to get that result.

The decision by the two Democrats to once again flout their leadership has quickly resurfaced a complicated debate about party discipline within the caucus. Democrats had already been discussing ways to punish members who oppose the party on key procedural votes after the last episode. Now, in the final week of session before the midterms, those conversations are quickly heating up.

Another top Democrat, Rep. Pete Aguilar, later called out the two defectors and said their caucus would discuss potential punishments for the members.

Asked about enforcing party discipline, he said, “We’ll have some conversations as a family, and we’ll go from there.”

And he issued a terse warning to fellow Democrats about the behavior: “That’s not what we should be doing.”

两名中间派众议院议员再次违抗党内领导人的意愿，投票支持推进白宫的一项重要优先事项，这激怒了众议院民主党人——这已经是最近几周第二次发生这种情况了。

据一位知情人士透露，这两位民主党人，特别是正在竞选连任的众议员玛丽·格鲁森坎普·佩雷斯，在激烈的选区中引发了极大的不满，导致周二晚上这位来自华盛顿的女议员与一位党内高层领导人在众议院发生冲突。

据知情人士透露，众议院民主党二号人物兼党鞭凯瑟琳·克拉克在投票结束后不久，与格鲁森坎普·佩雷斯在议会大厅激烈争论时，似乎提高了音量。（另一位倒戈的民主党众议员，来自缅因州的贾里德·戈尔登，任期结束后即将退休，因此受到的党内反弹较小。）

这两名民主党议员倒戈的那次投票被称为规则性投票。通常情况下，少数党成员会团结一致反对这类程序性投票，而多数党需要通过这类投票才能将法案提交议会审议。

鉴于目前可以提交众议院表决的法案之一是特朗普总统本人力推的俄罗斯制裁法案，民主党人对此尤其愤怒。白宫已将此案列为高度优先事项，以至于政府内部有人私下联系了至少一位众议院的民主党中间派议员，试图说服他支持共和党的程序性投票，以此换取在家乡开展一项社区项目。这位议员告诉CNN，他最终反对了共和党的程序性投票。

虽然一些民主党人支持对俄罗斯的制裁法案，但他们表示，他们不愿意支持共和党制定规则——以及跨党派领导——来实现这一目标。

这两位民主党人再次违抗领导层的决定，迅速引发了党团内部关于党纪的复杂辩论。在上一次事件发生后，民主党人就已经开始讨论如何惩罚在关键程序性投票中反对党派的成员。如今，在中期选举前的最后一周，这些讨论正迅速升温。

另一位民主党高层人士，众议员皮特·阿吉拉尔后来公开谴责了这两名叛逃者，并表示他们的党团会议将讨论对这些成员的潜在惩罚。

当被问及如何执行党纪时，他说：“我们会进行一些家庭内部的讨论，然后再做决定。”

他还就这种行为向其他民主党人发出了简短的警告：“我们不应该这样做。”