Ex-president Donald Trump tore into Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell on Sunday over his aid in handing President Biden a huge victory in the form of an infrastructure bill. Frustrated by the ongoing joke made about his constant announcements of “infrastructure week” that never materialized in the form of legislation, Trump lashed out at the Senate Minority Leader:
All Republicans who voted for Democrat longevity should be ashamed of themselves, in particular Mitch McConnell, for granting a two month stay which allowed the Democrats time to work things out at our Country’s, and the Republican Party’s, expense!
How about all of those Republican Senators that voted thinking that helping the Democrats is such a wonderful thing to do, so politically correct. They just don’t get it!
Never one to engage in political cooperation, Trump took aim at the 19 Republicans, including McConnell, who joined Democrats in passing the bill. The former president had already expressed his displeasure with GOP members who worked with Democrats back in August, exhorting McConnell to “use the debt ceiling card to negotiate a good infrastructure package” — meaning to hold the economy hostage until Democrats caved in to Republican demands, as the GOP has successfully done in the past.
NEW!
President Donald J. Trump:
“Very sad that the RINOs in the House and Senate gave Biden and Democrats a victory on the “Non-Infrastructure” Bill, where only 11% of the money being wasted goes to real infrastructure. How about all of those Republican Senators that voted… pic.twitter.com/vwpNGPLmuX [1]
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) November 7, 2021 [2]
Trump’s concern that Democrats may find a measure of success at getting the GOP to vote along with them on a social spending bill at some point down the line may have some merit. Democrats were able to negotiate and pass a procedural rule that would allow their upcoming bill to come to a vote without facing a filibuster-style shutdown that often requires only a single opponent to pull off.
The infrastructure bill easily had the numbers to avoid such a move, surpassing the required supermajority to avoid a filibuster by 9 votes.
It’s not likely that this necessarily means anything for the future of bipartisanship. The infrastructure bill contained much that Republicans had hoped for — and playing nice today doesn’t mean that they will tomorrow.