The war in Yemen is widely considered to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and this month, there was a faint hope it might actually end. Senator Bernie Sanders seemed confident at the start of December that his war powers resolution to end pivotal US support for the Saudi-led war effort would have the votes if he brought it to the floor, and Tuesday proved to be the moment of truth.

Then it all unraveled. Joe Biden’s White House began whipping behind the scenes to kill the measure, telling lawmakers that its passage would jeopardize what it cast as the administration’s successful diplomatic efforts in the conflict, and threatening to veto whatever passed, according to talking points first reported by the Intercept and shared with Jacobin. Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, quickly came out as a “no” vote, with his counterpart, Senator Dianne Feinstein, another Democrat, soon following suit. Late on Tuesday, Sanders withdrew the resolution, saying he would instead work with the White House to negotiate new language that everyone could agree on, and promising to reintroduce it if he and the administration couldn’t come to an acceptable agreement.

Though Sanders put on a brave front, casting the decision as his willing choice to work with the White House for a happy compromise, reporting from Capitol Hill appears to tell a different story. Several sources told Politico that it soon turned out Sanders didn’t, in fact, have the votes he thought he had to pass the measure, meaning he likely chose to withdraw it rather than risk a defeat that would foreclose on any future action.