by Steve Holland
COVINGTON, Kentucky, Jan 4 (Reuters) – Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden and Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell made a rare joint appearance in Kentucky on Wednesday to highlight a bipartisan stance the White House hopes to see at work in the coming years months with the new Congress.
The visit came as the Republican Party was still unable to appoint the “speaker” of the House of Representatives, which it took over in the midterm elections in November, a small group of radicals blocked the appointment of Kevin McCarthy and gave rise to a situation that did not was seen. since 1923.
➦ US Republicans still disagree on House “speeches”.
“We disagree on a lot of things, but here’s what matters: he’s a man of his word,” Joe Biden said of Mitch McConnell. “It sends an important message to the entire country: we can work together,” he continued, contrasting the turmoil undermining the Republican Party.
“We can achieve things. We can move the nation forward if we put a little bit of our egos aside and focus on what is needed for the country,” the US president added.
Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell, both 80, traveled to Covington on the Brent Spence Bridge, which connects the Kentucky city with Cincinnati, Ohio, to outline how the plan will use the $1 trillion infrastructure funding package approved with bipartisan support by Congress.
This joint appearance serves both the Democratic president and the leader of the Republican senators. Mitch McConnell wants to reap laurels from the voters in his state of Kentucky, while Joe Biden wants to demonstrate the concrete expression against the background of the collaborative efforts between parliamentarians from both camps.
“The country needs to see examples like this,” Mitch McConnell said, calling the bipartisan deal that passed the massive infrastructure investment plan a “legislative miracle.”
While he held the majority in Congress during the first two years of his term, Joe Biden must now deal with a lower house in the hands of Republicans who hope to obstruct his program and open investigations against him and members of his administration. . The White House believes American voters want the opposite.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, with Trevor Hunnicutt; French editing by Jean Terzian)
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