President Biden on Tuesday slammed House Republicans for reportedly trying to organize an effort to strip the 13 members of their caucus who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill last week of their committee assignments.
During his appearance at a virtual DNC grassroots event on Tuesday, the President referenced Punchbowl News‘ report on GOP leadership anticipating a push by rank-and-file lawmakers to organize an effort to strip committee assignments from members who supported BIF.
After saying that he hopes lawmakers can “get back to a place where there’s more civility in politics,” Biden expressed his disbelief over House Republicans turning on their colleagues who voted to support BIF after Democrats scored a legislative victory that the Trump administration failed to do.
“If they’re a chairman of a committee, (House Republicans are) trying to strip (GOP supporters of BIF) of their chairmanship,” Biden said. “I’ve never seen it like this before. It’s got to stop for the sake of America. I know I get in trouble when I talk about ‘bipartisan.’ There’s people that say ‘why the devil would I like any Republicans?’ Well, it’s important. Unless we generate consensus in America, we’re in trouble.”
The President then called out the majority of House Republicans who voted against BIF, despite claiming that they’re supportive of infrastructure legislation in the abstract, because they’re concerned about the optics of Democrats being “given credit for something.”
“Now (House Republicans who support BIF are) being threatened with their chairmanships — this is not right,” Biden said. “We’re going to change it though.”
Shortly after 13 Republicans broke ranks to help pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill last week, some House Republicans turned against their 13 colleagues who voted for BIF by smearing the bill — which 19 GOP senators supported earlier this year — as a “pathway to socialism.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) went so far as to tweet the phone numbers of the 13 House Republicans who voted for the bill.
Signs of backlash swiftly ensued, with Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) on Monday revealing to CNN that he received a threatening voicemail days after he voted alongside a handful of his colleagues to support BIF.
“I hope you die. I hope everybody in your f**king family dies,” the caller is heard saying in the voicemail to Upton that aired on CNN.
Upton’s office told CNN that the threatening voicemail was not an isolated incident. Upton appeared to allude to Greene’s tweet when explaining the timing of when he began receiving threats.
