Biden hits out at Republicans for blocking his agenda in rare Twitter outburst
No mention of Manchin, Sinema in Biden’s rant against Washington inaction
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President Joe Biden lashed out at his Republican foes in a pair of uncharacteristically frustrated and angry statements released via Twitter on Sunday.
In a move that would have echoed his predecessor former president Donald Trump (were it not for the lack of mispellings and random capitalisation of words), the president scorched Republicans for voting against legislation to deal with a whole host of issues that he argued required bipartisan solutions.
While not out of place for a Democratic politician, the remarks revealed a Joe Biden who has largely given up on any effort to get Republicans to work with his party in good faith to address America’s greatest issues — even as he signs bipartisan legislation into law to address gun violence.
“We’ve seen the risk millions of workers face as they watch their pensions turn into broken promises. Now that we are implementing the Special Financial Assistance program, millions of workers will have the retirement they earned. Zero Republicans voted for this legislation,” wrote Mr Biden.
“Republicans are doing nothing but obstructing our efforts to crack down on gas-price gouging, lower food prices, lower healthcare costs, and hopefully, soon, lower your prescription drug costs. This is not right. And that’s why this election is going to be so darn important,” the president insisted.
The remarks come as Democrats are trying to rally a disillusioned and angry base to return to the polls in November in the hopes of expanding the party’s majority in the Senate and allowing for the codification of abortion rights into law. But the party also needs to hold on to its House majority for that to be possible. In many cases, that means Democratic politicians are making the tough choice to run aligned with or against an unpopular White House.
A new poll out on Monday from Siena College indicates that nearly two-thirds of Mr Biden’s own party doesn’t want him to run again in 2024, preferring instead that he bow out and letting a younger leader take charge.
That poll indicated that inflation and the economy remain voters’ main concern, hence the president’s remarks and Democrats continued woes about November even given the unpopularity of the Supreme Court’s ruling throwing out the protections for abortion rights at the federal level.
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