President Joe Biden celebrated new infrastructure funding at an event Wednesday with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), in a rare display of bipartisanship that stood in stark contrast to the fiasco that has dominated headlines in Washington.
McConnell is decided to ride along with Biden for the event in Covington, Kentucky, the Beast, limo president armor, put a punctuation mark on the message of normalcy the two leaders were hoping to send as the House Republicans struggled to choose a speaker. The chaos has undermined the ambitions of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the formation of the 118th Congress.
The conservative rebellion against McCarthy, who had been the leader of the GOP House, is historic: The lower house has not required more than one ballot to elect a speaker since December 1923. Although, in 1855, the process took 133 ballots and two months. sorting.
Before leaving for Kentucky on Wednesday, Biden weighed in, calling the GOP’s predicament “a little embarrassing.”
“Do you think about it in other worlds?” the president asked as he left the White House.
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In Kentucky, Biden announced new federal funding that includes the overhaul and expansion of the Brent Spence Bridge, a major freight bottleneck connecting Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky. The $1.6 billion in funding is available through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a trillion-dollar piece of legislation that could not be passed without McConnell and other Senate Republicans supporting it.
“It won’t happen without your hands. It’s just not going to end and I have to thank you for that,” Biden said of McConnell.
“We don’t agree on everything. In fact, we don’t agree on a lot of things, but here’s what’s important: He’s a man of his word,” the senator said. “They are willing to find common ground to get things done for the country.”
McConnell wasn’t the only Republican in attendance on Wednesday. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) and recently retired Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who voted for the infrastructure law, were also present.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) also praised Biden for helping make the fund a reality.
“Many presidents have promised a companion bridge [to the Brent Spence]and this president delivered,” Beshear said of efforts to develop the bridge.
Wednesday’s meeting with McConnell was a vindication for Biden, who predicted as a presidential candidate that congressional Republicans would have an “epiphany” and work with Democrats when Donald Trump is no longer president. In addition to the infrastructure law, Congress approved several bipartisan measures in the past two years, including an overhaul of gun safety, domestic semiconductor investment, and new health care for veterans.
Biden and McConnell share a long history in the Senate and as negotiators during Barack Obama’s presidency. As vice president, Biden regularly cut deals with McConnell — to the chagrin of some Democrats — in a government as divided as the country faces today.
Trump, who promised to complete infrastructure repairs but failed to do so, used social media platform Truth Social to lash out at McConnell. “If the Republicans are going to fight, we have to fight Mitch McConnell and his domineering, China-loving BOSS, I mean his wife, Coco Chow,” Trump wroteused racist language to refer to McConnell’s wife and Trump’s former transportation secretary.
Meanwhile, Biden used the Brent Spence Bridge and infrastructure victory as an example of what can be accomplished when lawmakers work together.
“After years of political divisiveness, there are bright spots across the country. The Brent Spence Bridge is one of them,” Biden said Wednesday. “The bridge to the American vision, I know that we believe in, where we can work together to make it happen.”