At a time of significant political polarization, a former Republican lawmaker and a current Democratic Senator sat down to discuss cooperation across party lines—and found a few safe points of agreement on Trump and Biden in the federal government’s town.
“We have had a lot of bipartisan successes,” said Rob Portman, formerly a Republican senator from Ohio.
Portman retired from the Senate this year after opting not to seek a third term. His seat has been filled by Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).
He sat down with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
“Initially, President Biden’s proposal for infrastructure was dead on arrival because it had huge taxes in it and a lot of non-infrastructure spending,” he said, adding that the Biden White House had been “helpful.”
Portman noted that the media consistently wrote off the infrastructure bill because of sniping between Democrats and Republicans.
“But we just kept focusing on that objective, which is, ‘How do you get this thing done?’” he added.
He contrasted the infrastructure bill achievement under Biden with what had happened to infrastructure bills under previous presidents from both parties, including Trump.
Trump, Portman said, had upped the ante during a meeting with Senate Democrats. They wanted $1 trillion in infrastructure spending.
“He said in his way, ‘I’m a builder–we’re going to do $2 trillion.’ And of course, they did zero,” he said, drawing laughs from the audience.
Trump Troubles Klobuchar
The two Midwesterners spoke at American University, where they were receiving the Madison Prize for Constitutional Excellence.“Thanks to Senators Portman and Klobuchar for having the courage to seek compromise as one way to achieve success,” said Vicky Wilkins, dean of the American University School of Public Affairs, in her introduction.
American University President Sylvia Burwell moderated the discussion.
Burwell served as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Barack Obama.
When asked for an example of a bipartisan success, Klobuchar referred to the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022. The measure passed roughly two years after the contested 2020 election as part of an omnibus bill.
“This was viewed as [one that] possibly could go partisan on us really fast,” she said.
“I was really proud of the committee, actually, the Rules Committee. With the exception of one person—okay, Ted Cruz—all the Republicans voted for the bill,” added the lawmaker, who was being honored for her commitment to bipartisanship and compromise.
Klobuchar appealed to the memory of Jan. 6, 2021, recalling how the events shaped her thinking on the electoral process.
“That memory of [Sen.] Roy [Blunt, (R-Mo.)] and me and Vice President Pence walking at 4 in the morning is forever etched—and defined my work in the past few years—walking over the broken glass and the pillar of spray-painted vulgarities, which in the morning had been this celebration was something that just meant to me, we can’t let this ever happen again,” she continued.
Klobuchar also blamed the Trump administration for halting bipartisan immigration legislation.
She suggested that “the era of Donald Trump and the insurrection and the like” has caused “people to step back” and assess the degree to which Americans were losing a sense of community.
“What are the signs that we could kind of swing back the other way? I think that the first sign was American pushback after Trump, honestly, and the pushback even in the midterms [when] election deniers were on the ballot,” she added.
