WH Advisor: We’re Signing the Rescue Plan, Jobs Plan, and Families Plan Because the Country Needs Them
Cedric Richmond works to clean up president's view of legislating after messy weekend
A senior advisor to President Biden appeared on television Sunday to attempt to mop-up what had become a messy couple of days prior, in which Biden went from hailing a bipartisan agreement on a scaled-back version of his American Jobs Plan, to having to mollify angry Republicans who felt that Biden had agreed to their deal on the limited infrastructure initiative only in tandem with a much larger bill Democrats plan to approve separately.
Biden and Senate Republicans agreed late last week to approve a scaled-back, $1.2 trillion version of the president's American Jobs Plan infrastructure program. But Republicans balked just days later when that bill seemed to be linked with a much larger package Democrats plan to approve separately without Republican votes under a process known as “reconciliation.”
After Biden released a statement Saturday, White House senior advisor Cedric Richmond further attempted to clarify the picture in an interview Sunday with Chris Wallace, of Fox News.
“But yesterday, the president issued this clarification: ‘The bottom line is this: I gave my word to support the infrastructure plan and that’s what I intend to do. I fully stand behind it without reservation or hesitation,’” Wallace said. “Question, Mr. Richmond: What does the President say to those Republicans who felt double-crossed when in that original statement on Thursday, the president seemed to indicate he wouldn’t sign the one bill without the other? And what does the president say to Democrats on the left who still say, ‘No bipartisan infrastructure bill if we don’t also get that big spending bill on social programs?’”
In reply, Richmond, a former congressman from New Orleans, La., said, “Thanks for the question, Chris. I think he says exactly what he’s been saying in terms of this is a once-in-a-lifetime investment, the largest investment in infrastructure ever in this country — removing lead pipes from over 10 million homes, largest investment in public transit in our history, largest investment in the rail since the creation of Amtrak. I think what he’s doing is making sure that we’re talking about the issue and not the process,” he said. “The issue is we have to invest in our country with crumbling bridges and roads, and we’re going to deal with it, and so we brought together Republicans and Democrats and we got it done.
"And so, to your larger question, I think he did exactly what the American people want him to do, and that is Republicans and Democrats come together where you agree, fight about what you don’t agree on afterwards,” Richmond added. “So we are going to fight about the American Families Plan. Republicans are going to try to kill it. We’re going to try to pass it, we’re going to pass it, and we’ll sign both bills.”
Wallace sought to clarify the picture further.
“Just to be clear, 30 seconds left, if he gets the infrastructure bill, he is going to sign the infrastructure bill, no if, ands or buts, no conditions?” he asked.
“This president has had a strategy since the beginning — a rescue plan, a jobs plan, family plan. And we expect to do exactly with the jobs plan what we did with the rescue plan, and we’ll do the same with the families plan,” Richmond replied. “We’re going to sign all three because the country needs them.”
“But no conditions, one on the other?” the interviewer pressed.
“Well, we don’t have to talk about conditions. We can talk about how important the families plan and the jobs plan are, and we plan to pass them, just like we did the rescue plan,” Richmond said. “People keep underestimating us, we keep delivering.”