On Monday at the White House press briefing, when White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked why President Biden, despite his calls for “unity,” had still not met with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, she admitted that the call for “unity” was a hollow one, at least among lawmakers. “When I say he is focused on bringing people together, bringing Democrats and Republicans together, he’s not talking about solving bipartisanship in this zip code here,” she said.
The reporter asked, “Hey, a question on unity. You know, you talk about earlier, you said you wanted to bring … Or the president wanted to bring the country back together. So I guess the question is he has not met with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, according to Kevin McCarthy. What does that say about unity? And also there are some other legislative issues, as it relates to HR1 and a commission to study packing the Supreme Court, as you would say. And there’s a lot of other lists as well, budget reconciliation. So there’s a lot of folks, you’re talking about tens of millions of people, they’re concerned about that this doesn’t seem like unity at all.”
Psaki answered, “Do you think tens of millions of people are concerned about him not meeting with Kevin McCarthy?”
The reporter persisted, “No. I think tens of millions of people are concerned about HR1 and budget reconciliation and going with the 50 vote threshold. I think —”
“I’m not sure the polling bears that out, but I will say that the president’s view is that bringing the country together is bringing the American people together,” Psaki stated. “So when I say he is focused on bringing people together, bringing Democrats and Republicans together. He’s not talking about solving bipartisanship in this zip code here.”
She continued by asserting that “the vast majority of the American public … certainly want to see him working with Republicans and Democrats here, and he’s, he’s absolutely doing everything he can to do that. He’s had a number of Republicans down here to the Oval Office. He’s looking for it. We’re we’re going to be reviewing their proposals. And I think certainly people see that, see him rolling up his sleeves and ready to work with people of all different viewpoints.”
Forbes reported in late March: “Even Republicans who have met with Biden said it made little difference in terms of compromise on major legislation: Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said the White House has ‘not been willing to work with us on the big issues,’ Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said they have ‘clearly rejected a bipartisan approach,’ and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said whether she actually gets to weigh in on policy ‘remains to be seen.’”
“Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who among the 10 Republicans, said ‘whatever lip service is given about wanting to work together is pure lip service,’ calling the idea that Biden has fulfilled his campaign pledge to govern in a bipartisan way ‘the biggest joke there is,’” Forbes added.