Infrastructure Week may happen yet.
Utah Senator Mitt Romney said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that he still trusts President Joe Biden and believes the bipartisan infrastructure agreement reached last week at the White House will still happen. The agreement was thought to be in jeopardy after the president said he would only sign the bill if Congress also passed a bigger spending bill through the process of reconciliation (which doesn’t need GOP support).
President Biden backtracked on those remarks over the weekend, and Romney told Jake Tapper that was good enough for him.
“I take the president at his word.”
Sen. Mitt romney
The deal is far from assured however. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she won’t bring the $590 billion bipartisan bill to the floor without assurances of a more ambitious legislation passing the Senate. Romney said that the Republican votes to get the small bill passed are there. The rest, he said, is up to Democrats to work out.
During the wide-ranging interview, Tapper also asked Romney about former President Trump’s Saturday night rally in Ohio, in which he recited many of the familiar grievances and lies he’s said at previous events. One of the few Republican lawmakers willing to publicly criticize former President Trump, Romney said the election was fair, and the U.S.’s standing around the world is being hurt by Trump’s refusal to accept the results. He noted that the continuing lies about the election are being weaponized by foreign adversaries such as Russia.
At the same time, Romney ridiculed the former president as being the political equivalent of pro wrestling.
Romney also said he hoped House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy would appoint Republicans with credibility to the select committee Pelosi intends to establish to investigate the January 6 Insurrection.