White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted that President Joe Biden could bring the unity and bipartisanship he promised on Inauguration Day despite recent comments labeling an entire section of the Republican Party as the “Ultra-MAGA crowd.”
Psaki made the comments during Monday’s press briefing — responding to NPR’s Tamara Keith, who asked how Biden’s recent attacks aimed at the “Ultra-MAGA” Republicans would “jive” with his promise to represent all Americans and support bipartisanship.
NPR's Tamara Keith: "The President and you have talked about 'the MAGA crowd' or the 'ultra-MAGA.' How does that jive with his desire to be the bipartisan guy?"
Psaki: "The President's view is you can do both. He believes that there is work we can continue to do together." pic.twitter.com/nWAfgKdcTh
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 9, 2022
“The President and you have talked about ‘the MAGA crowd’ or the ‘ultra-MAGA.’ How does that jive with his desire to be the bipartisan guy?” Keith asked.
“The President’s view is you can do both. He believes that there is work we can continue to do together,” Psaki insisted, mentioning the bipartisan Innovation Act and saying that there were other pieces of legislation where the parties could find common ground and move forward.
“That can build on the nearly 80 bills that we signed into law last year that are bipartisan,” Psaki continued. “But he is also not going to stand by and not call out what he sees as ‘Ultra-MAGA’ behavior, ‘Ultra-MAGA’ policies that are out of the mainstream of the country and are not in the interest of the American people, whether that is efforts to prevent a woman from making choices about her own health care or whether that is Chairman Scott’s policy and proposals that would raise taxes on people making less that $100,000 a year.”
“He’s going to continue to call that out,” Psaki concluded, adding, “But he believes there’s still a path to move forward on where we have agreement.”
“Not shocking coming from folks who think that men can get pregnant,” Townhall.com Senior Editor Matt Vespa commented.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) weighed in on Psaki’s comments as well, adding, “The Biden doctrine: you can hate the ‘deplorables’ and insult half the country & the press will still call you a bipartisan ‘unifier’!”
“Joe Biden blamed me for a pandemic and then tried to have me fired,” radio host Jesse Kelly tweeted. “If he thinks we’re gonna be ‘working together’ anytime soon, he’s sorely mistaken.”
“They are just giving us this awesome branding for free,” Will Chamberlain noted.
“Haha this is such a dumb messaging exercise that isn’t going to move anyone,” Matt Whitlock concluded.