President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell delivered a rare sight Wednesday, as they stood together to celebrate the revitalization of a bridge connecting Ohio to McConnell’s home state of Kentucky.
The two leaders took the trip to Kentucky to preach the products of bipartisan cooperation, a message Biden has harkened back to throughout his time in office. The Biden administration has made it a point to highlight the achievements made through the passing of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021.
The message is heightened given the events simultaneously taking place in the House, where Republicans have now completed their fourth round of voting for a new speaker to no avail.
Upon leaving the White House on Wednesday, Biden stopped to talk to reporters and share his thoughts on the turmoil rocking House Republicans.
“With regard to the fight over the speaker, that’s not my problem,” Biden said before leaving for his trip to northern Kentucky.
“I just think it’s a little embarrassing it’s taken so long and the way they’re dealing with one another,” he added. “And the rest of the world’s looking. They’re looking at, you know, if we can get our act together.”
McConnell, now the longest-serving party leader in Senate history, has largely remained mum on the events going on in the House, speaking to his Kentucky constituents before Biden took the stage.
“We all know these are really partisan times. But I always feel that no matter who gets elected, once it’s all over, we ought to look for things that we can agree on and try to do those, even while we have big differences on other things,” McConnell said briefly.
The bridge that brought Biden and McConnell together is known as the Brent Spence Bridge, considered one of the busiest freight routes in the country, and known to carry far more weight than it can handle.
Look, Leader McConnell and I don’t agree on everything. In fact, we disagree on a great deal.
But the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law showed that when we work together, we can get things done and move the nation forward. pic.twitter.com/I4T5h5Odhr
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 4, 2023
It’s also a bridge that Biden has long promised to overhaul: “We’re going to fix that damn bridge of yours going into Kentucky,” Biden said during a CNN town hall in Cincinnati in the summer of 2021, as the infrastructure bill began picking up steam.
The infrastructure law provided $1 trillion that Biden’s administration is doling out for roads and bridges, broadband networks, and water projects across America. Notably, McConnell, who was one of 19 Senate Republicans to support the infrastructure bill, was the only Kentucky Republican senator to attend the celebration.
According to the Associated Press, the White House invited Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and newly sworn-in J.D. Vance of Ohio, but neither planned to appear alongside Biden in Kentucky.
“This is a bridge that has been a major national issue for 25 years, my top transportation project for decades. And it’s going to be fully funded by the infrastructure bill, which I supported,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday on Capitol Hill. “It’s important for me to be there.”
