President Joe Biden on Wednesday blamed Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s loss in Virginia’s governor’s race on the number of "very conservative folks who turned out in districts," suggesting that passing his Build Back Better plan likely wouldn’t have made a difference.
"I think it should have passed before Election Day, but I’m not sure that I would be able to have changed the number of very conservative folks who turned out in the red districts who were Trump voters, but maybe, maybe," Biden said at the White House when asked if McAuliffe would have won had the $1.75 trillion social spending bill cleared.
When a reporter pointed out that he had won Virginia by 10 points in 2020’s presidential election, Biden responded: "I know we did. But … I was running against Donald Trump."
Biden added that "people want us to get things done, they want us to get things done and that’s why I’m continuing to push very hard for the Democratic Party to move along and pass my infrastructure bill and my Build Back Better bill.
People are just "upset and uncertain about a lot of things," he said.
"And so, If I’m able to pass and sign into law my Build Back Better initiative, I’m in a position where you’re going to see a lot of those things ameliorated quickly and swiftly. So that has to be done," he said.
Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated former Gov. McAuliffe by the slimmest of margins, 50.9 percent to 48.4 percent, becoming the first Republican to win a statewide election in the Old Dominion since 2009.
Biden urged voters to "accept the legitimacy of these elections," and said McAuliffe “got 600,000 more votes than any Democrat ever has gotten.”
He added, "No governor in Virginia has [ever] won when he or she’s of the same party as the sitting president."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.