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McConnell to hold joint infrastructure event with Biden in Kentucky, infuriating MAGA Republicans [1]
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Date: 2023-01-04
x Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell will host Joe Biden in KY tomorrow where they will celebrate bipartisan cooperation for the good of the country to get the Admin’s legislative agenda passed. — Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) January 3, 2023
The event will offer a sharp contrast to the chaos engulfing the House with the new narrow GOP majority unable to elect a speaker on its second day in control. McConnell had fully expected to take over as Senate majority leader on Tuesday when the new Congress convened. But instead, Democrats ended up increasing their Senate majority by one seat in the midterms.
Unlike his spineless House counterpart Kevin McCarthy, McConnell may realize it's beneficial for party leaders to stand up to rather than appease extremist MAGA Republicans. He has blamed Trump for putting up poor quality candidates like Herschel Walker in Georgia and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania who lost potentially winnable races that left him as minority leader.
RELATED STORY: McConnell launches mad hunt for whoever whiffed Trump's impeachment then backed his loser candidates
He doesn’t want that to happen again in 2024 when the Senate map favors Republicans. Democrats must defend three seats in states won by Trump—in Ohio (Sherrod Brown), Montana (Jon Tester), and West Virginia (Joe Manchin) as well as in purple states, including Arizona (Kyrsten Sinema, now an independent).
Additionally, Trump has insulted McConnell in posts on his Truth Social platform as an “Old Crow” RINO (Republican In Name Only) and leveled ethnic slurs at his wife, Trump’s former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. And Trump lashed out at McConnell and Chao again on Tuesday on his Truth Social platform in the wake of McCarthy’s failure to win the speakership. Trump is backing McCarthy’s bid for speaker.
“There is so much unnecessary turmoil in the Republican Party,” Trump said, adding that the disorder is due in large part to “Old Broken Crow” McConnell, his wife Chao “who is a sellout to China,” and their “RINO” allies. They “make it difficult for everyone else by constantly capitulating to Hopeless Joe Biden and the Democrats.”
Of course, McConnell is responsible for much of what ails the nation, including packing the judiciary with Federalist Society conservatives, including three hard-line Supreme Court justices. But McConnell has begun to take a stand against MAGA Republican extremists, even if his actions are too little, too late after he failed to vote against Trump in the 2021 Senate impeachment trial. McConnell incurred the wrath of Trump when he got 18 other Senate Republicans to join him in supporting the infrastructure bill in 2021. In the House, McCarthy opposed the bill, while only 13 Republicans supported it.
RELATED STORY: There are no ‘good’ Republicans, and the sooner that is universally acknowledged the better
He further infuriated MAGA Republicans when he helped the Senate pass the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill in December, including $45 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine, to fund the government in fiscal year 2023.
RELATED STORY: Santos scandal just the beginning of bind that promises to haunt Republicans straight into 2024
On Wednesday, Biden and McConnell will be making a joint appearance to tout the $1.63 billion in federal grants that Kentucky and Ohio will receive to help repair and replace the overloaded Brent Spence Bridge over the Ohio River that connects Cincinnati and Covington, a heavily used freight route connecting the Midwest and the South.
The White House said Biden will be speaking about “how his economic plan is rebuilding our infrastructure, creating good-paying jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, and revitalizing communities left behind.”
At his stop along the Ohio-Kentucky border, Biden will also be joined by Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, along with two Democrats: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who is up for reelection in 2023, and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. Reuters reported:
Biden has enjoyed Democratic control of Congress during his first two years in office. But after midterm elections in November, Republicans now in control of the House plan to try to stall his agenda and launch investigations into his family and cabinet members. That's the opposite of what the White House thinks voters want. Democrats' unexpected success in the last midterms shows "the American people said very loudly and clearly they wanted us to come together and work for a common ground,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday.
Conservative commentators were irate about the joint appearance. Mark Levin called McConnell a “total fraud” on Twitter. Laura Ingraham tweeted, “Behold the uniparty!”
On Tuesday, McConnell broke the record for longest-serving Senate party leader whether in the majority or the minority, Politico reported. The record had been held by Democratic Sen. Mike Mansfield of Montana, who served as majority leader for 16 years.
In his floor remarks to open the new Congress, McConnell actually paid tribute to Mansfield: “Mansfield was a canny strategist who knew how to rally his conference. He knew when to go to battle, and when to coordinate with his counterpart Everett Dirksen,” McConnell said. “In short, he knew how to work the Senate.”
In November, McConnell beat back a leadership challenge. Ten senators voted for Sen. Rick Scott of Florida instead of McConnell.
Vice President Kamala Harris and other senior Biden administration officials will be blanketing the country this week to promote the president’s economic plan. On Wednesday, Harris will be in Chicago and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will visit New London, Connecticut. On Thursday, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will join White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu in San Francisco, California.
Those visits are related to the following infrastructure projects funded under the 2021 bill: four moveable bridges crossing the Calumet River in Chicago; the Gold Star Memorial Bridge in New London, Connecticut; and the famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
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