I want to believe what you’re saying but I took the line “we had the votes” to we we had them and then lost them. It’s the old bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. Seems foolish to give up sure thing
I took it another way. I took it as "see, we had the votes" and the swamp is fighting back. Meaning the swamp is fighting and in a panic because they knew the votes were there. Loved how Flake out flanked them by making them think his vote was going to be based on an amendment and then not tying it to an amendment. Although I will say I freaked out when it first happened.