President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., preached the need for bipartisan cooperation while touting the formal implementation of two pieces of legislation: the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act.
For Biden's Wednesday speech, which took place in front the Brent Spence Bridge in Kentucky, adjacent to the Ohio River, he thanked McConnell — a political adversary during previous election cycles — for helping move both bills through the Senate.
"Mitch, it's great to be with you," said Biden. He then quipped: "I asked permission if I could say something nice about him. I said I'd campaign for him or against him, whichever helped him the most."
Biden's Kentucky stop represents a grander push for the Biden White House to articulate its infrastructure plans.
Later this week, Vice President Kamala Harris (in Chicago), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (in Connecticut), and infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu (in San Francisco) will reportedly feed off Biden's comments about the infrastructure bills in their own speeches.
According to the Washington Examiner, the three other speeches will also take place in front of replaced or renovated bridges.
During his Wednesday remarks, Biden noted how the Spence bridge, over 60 years old, was originally designed to carry 80,000 vehicles per day. But that number has doubled in volume.
The bridge area also represents the second most-congested truck bottleneck in the United States, noted Biden.
The president added that "we can work together. We can get things done. We can move the nation forward — if we just drop a little bit of our egos and focus on what is needed for the country."
Biden's plea to unify Republicans, Democrats, and the American people didn't necessarily apply to what's been taking place in the House chamber over the last two days, with Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., failing five rounds of voting to win the speakership.
Biden got in a timely dig: "Rep. Greg Landsman [Ohio] couldn't be here today. He's dealing with trying to figure out who's going to be the next speaker of the House of Representatives. I wish him a lot of luck. ... He may be the first freshman ever elected speaker of the House."
The eventual speaker of the Republican-controlled House will need at least 218 floor votes.
Appearing in public with Sen. McConnell arguably helps Biden on three fronts:
- It's good promotion for the new infrastructure plans.
- Former President Donald Trump often knocks Biden and McConnell, perhaps more than any other active politicians.
- Biden's handlers likely know that McConnell has a lower favorability rating than the president — with RealClear Politics putting McConnell underwater by 33 percentage points in a recent survey.
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