Show an ad over header. AMP

"The president deserves a lot of credit": McConnell praises Biden on infrastructure bill

11 August 2021
Dan Ackermann

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) credited President Biden on Tuesday for his role in getting the Senate to pass the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Why it matters: It's a rare flash of praise from the Republican leader, who has previously said that 100% of his focus is on "stopping" the Biden administration's agenda.

  • McConnell applauded Biden's role in getting Democrats to support the bill — which was negotiated mostly by a bipartisan group of centrists — and push it across the finish line.
  • "There’s nothing to back you up like the promise of a presidential signatory, if you’re in the same party as the president," McConnell told the Wall Street Journal. "And so I think the president deserves a lot of credit for getting the Democrats open to reaching a bipartisan agreement on this bill."

Between the lines: By voting for the infrastructure package, McConnell and Republicans are seeking to show that the Senate is not too polarized to function — which could stave off Democratic attempts to eliminate the 60-vote filibuster and pass more of their agenda without Republican votes.

The big picture: McConnell also rejected criticism from former President Trump and other Republicans who said that he was giving the Democrats a victory before the 2022 midterm elections, per the WSJ.

  • "Infrastructure is popular with both Republicans and Democrats," McConnell said.
  • “The American people, divided, sent us a 50-50 Senate and a narrowly divided House. I don’t think the message from that was, ‘Do absolutely nothing.’ And if you’re going to find an area of potential agreement, I can’t think of a better one than infrastructure, which is desperately needed."
  • The Senate voted 69-30 on Tuesday to pass the package, with 19 Senate Republicans voted in favor, including McConnell.
  • President Biden on Tuesday thanked McConnell for supporting the bill. "I know compromise is hard for both sides, but it’s important — it’s important, it’s necessary — for a democracy to be able to function," Biden said.

What to watch: Despite the rare reprieve of partisanship, McConnell maintained that Republicans will likely not help Democrats pass federal voting legislation or other top Democratic priorities.

  • But, that doesn't mean McConnell will block everything. "When they want to try to do something in the middle, we can talk," he said.

Go deeper ... "Long overdue": Biden praises Senate passage of bipartisan infrastructure package

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

Section2

Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.