Trump: Republicans, McConnell Shouldn’t Back Biden Infrastructure Deal

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and then-President Donald Trump listen during a signing ceremony for H.R. 748, the CARES Act in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on March 27, 2020. Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump criticized Republican senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), for engaging with the White House and some Democrats for a bipartisan infrastructure deal.

Last week, President Joe Biden said the White House came to an agreement with about a dozen Republican senators on a smaller $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal. Biden’s infrastructure proposals were resoundingly panned by Republicans, who said they’re too expansive and would grant more power to the federal government.

“So sad to see certain RINO Republican Senators go back and forth to the White House and continually get nothing for infrastructure or anything else,” Trump said, referring to “Republicans in name only.”

The former commander-in-chief, who has frequently criticized McConnell since leaving office, also targeted the Senate Republican leader amid the infrastructure talks.

“When will they learn that they are being played with, and used by, the Radical Left,” Trump added, “and only bad things can happen. Should have never lost the Senate in the first place, thanks Mitch! New leadership is needed, and fast!”

Several Republicans, in comments to the media, signaled that they are opposed to the new deal after Biden last week threatened to veto the infrastructure deal unless a partisan multi-trillion-dollar measure called the American Families Act is passed in tandem. But over the weekend, Biden walked back his comments and said he would try to pass the infrastructure bill as a standalone measure, noting that he “understandably upset some Republicans.”

McConnell has made few public comments about Trump in recent days, although he penned a Wall Street Journal article after the Jan. 6 Capitol breach and excoriated the former president for his claims about the 2020 election. And while he didn’t vote to convict Trump during his second impeachment, McConnell argued that Trump’s election comments as well as his $2,000 stimulus check proposal cost Republicans two Senate seats during Georgia’s runoff elections.

Trump also reacted negatively in a separate statement earlier this week after a book excerpt from ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl detailed an alleged conversation between McConnell and former Attorney General William Barr in which McConnell told the attorney general to push back against Trump’s post-Nov. 3 election assertions. Trump also criticized Barr for being a weak and ineffective attorney general.

When asked Tuesday about Trump’s recent statement, McConnell made a similar statement to one he made in April and didn’t signal a desire to continue the war-of-words with the former president.

“Yeah, I don’t have any observations about his comment,” he told The Hill on Tuesday. “I’m focusing on the present and the future. We have a new administration. We have significant differences about many of the things they’re trying to do.”

The GOP leader added: “Although we hope to be able to get a bipartisan solution to the infrastructure needs that we have in the country. So I’m putting all of my focus on the present and the future.”

The Epoch Times has contacted McConnell’s office for comment.