ANNAPOLIS, MD—Governor Larry Hogan today joined CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ to discuss final passage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which the governor has been pushing for since 2019 and helped craft during his Annapolis Infrastructure Summit.
On why only 13 House Republicans supported the bill:
“What happened was President Biden agreed to a bipartisan compromise that did not include any of the far left stuff on the second package and then changed his mind and backtracked. It passed overwhelmingly in the Senate with 69 votes. The House should’ve taken it up the next day, and it would’ve passed overwhelmingly with 29 [Republican] votes, but two things happened. One, the Democrats broke the agreement and tried to conflate the other far left bill that has nothing to do with infrastructure, and the progressives hijacked it and said we’re not going to vote on this unless we get everything we want. Well that’s not what a compromise is, and it’s not what the president agreed to. You also had all that time, several months went by, and you had President Trump attacking Republicans on infrastructure, you had the progressives saying they have to be together, and Republicans said hey, I don’t want to be a part of that.”
On whether this is a political win for President Biden:
“I think it could’ve been a much bigger win. I mean, he nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It should’ve been an overwhelming win back in August, and I think he should not have let it get sidetracked by the progressives in the House. I think that was bad for Joe Biden. I think that was reflected in the election results because, you know, I think they misread the mandate. You know, Joe Biden won a very narrow election by winning swing voters, and they’re not where the progressive caucus is, I can assure you, and the vast majority of Americans are not for this second bill.”
On why only 13 House Republicans supported the bill:
“What happened was President Biden agreed to a bipartisan compromise that did not include any of the far left stuff on the second package and then changed his mind and backtracked. It passed overwhelmingly in the Senate with 69 votes. The House should’ve taken it up the next day, and it would’ve passed overwhelmingly with 29 [Republican] votes, but two things happened. One, the Democrats broke the agreement and tried to conflate the other far left bill that has nothing to do with infrastructure, and the progressives hijacked it and said we’re not going to vote on this unless we get everything we want. Well that’s not what a compromise is, and it’s not what the president agreed to. You also had all that time, several months went by, and you had President Trump attacking Republicans on infrastructure, you had the progressives saying they have to be together, and Republicans said hey, I don’t want to be a part of that.”
On whether this is a political win for President Biden:
“I think it could’ve been a much bigger win. I mean, he nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It should’ve been an overwhelming win back in August, and I think he should not have let it get sidetracked by the progressives in the House. I think that was bad for Joe Biden. I think that was reflected in the election results because, you know, I think they misread the mandate. You know, Joe Biden won a very narrow election by winning swing voters, and they’re not where the progressive caucus is, I can assure you, and the vast majority of Americans are not for this second bill.”
-###-