Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Jen Psaki Perfectly Shames McConnell After He Says '100% of His Focus' Is on Stopping Biden

Jen Psaki Perfectly Shames McConnell After He Says '100% of His Focus' Is on Stopping Biden
C-SPAN // Alex Wong/Getty Images

After partisan divisions deepened over the course of former President Donald Trump's time in the White House, President Joe Biden promised to begin restoring productivity in Congress in hopes of narrowing the ideological gaps between Americans on both sides of the aisle.

After Biden approved congressional processes like reconciliation to pass sweeping legislation despite Republican resistance, Republican lawmakers skewered him for supposedly breaking that promise of bipartisanship. The Biden administration has clarified that a bill's bipartisanship doesn't necessarily mean it has Republican support in Congress, but that it has support among Republican voters.


Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) himself signaled that the Biden administration and Congressional Democrats working with Republicans to restore productivity in Congress would be a futile effort.

When asked for his thoughts on the current division between Republicans in the House, McConnell responded:

"One-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration. We're confronted with severe challenges from a new administration, and a narrow majority of Democrats in the House and a 50-50 Senate to turn America into a socialist country, and that's 100 percent of my focus."

The Minority Leader went on to say that Republican Senators are completely united in this focus.

McConnell's refusal to work toward bipartisanship is nothing new. As the Senate Majority Leader, McConnell refused to consider then-President Barack Obama's judicial nominees, including a Supreme Court seat his leadership left vacant for a year, despite the Senate's constitutional mandate to consider Obama's nominee.

After Democrats retook the House in the 2018 midterms, McConnell embraced his status as "grim reaper" for the amount of House-approved legislation he let die on his desk.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about McConnell's stated objective of "stopping" the Biden administration, and she didn't mince words in her response.

Watch below.

Psaki said:

"Well, I guess the contrast for people to consider is 100 percent of our focus is on delivering relief to the American people and getting the pandemic under control and putting people back to work. And we welcome, support engagement and work with the Republicans on that. The President has extended an open arm to that. The door to the Oval Office is open."

Without a single Republican vote, congressional Democrats and the Biden administration passed the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill that preserved expanded unemployment benefits, delivered millions of stimulus checks, and allocated funds for small business like restaurants hard-hit by the health crisis.

Now, the administration is wrangling to pass a sweeping infrastructure bill that would increase corporate tax rates, expand broadband access, modernize decaying federal facilities and commercial buildings, and create jobs in the process.

While some Republicans have expressed a willingness to negotiate with the Biden administration, congressional Democrats may have to invoke reconciliation again to bring it past the finish line in the narrowly divided Senate.

Psaki's emphasis on helping the American people over McConnell's prioritization of "stopping" the current administration was met with praise from social media users.



Others reacted more forcefully to McConnell's comments.






It's possible that McConnell's comments have provided Biden and Senate Democrats receipts to show when Republicans inevitably accuse them of rejecting bipartisanship.

More from People

Screenshot of Stephen Colbert
CBS

Stephen Colbert Makes Somber Plea To Americans In Wake Of Charlie Kirk's Death

Late-night host Stephen Colbert had a somber message for Americans as he addressed the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk, stressing that "political violence only leads to more political violence."

Kirk died after an unidentified gunman shot him in the neck as he—ironically enough—mocked victims of gun violence at an event in Utah Valley State University. Kirk's murder has galvanized the far-right, with President Donald Trump and his surrogates claiming without evidence that rhetoric from Democrats is responsible for Kirk's death.

Keep ReadingShow less
a woman sunbathing on rocks.
a person sitting on a towel on a beach
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

People Share The Weirdest Flexes They Heard Someone Say With A Straight Face

It is never attractive to gloat.

Even so, some people can't help but brag, or "flex" as it is sometimes known, about certain accomplishments or attributes.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @thedowntheredoc's TikTok video
@thedowntheredoc/TikTok

TikToker Hilariously Calls Out Target After Champion Pants Feature Awkwardly-Placed Front Pleat

Sometimes you can just tell when something was designed *for* women, but was not actually designed *by* women.

Take, for instance, the new pleated pants available at Target from the Champion clothing line. While there's nothing wrong with pleated pants and they certainly have a suitable spot in the workplace, the latest rendition of Champion pleated pants are, shall we say, NSFW.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @kaicutch's Instagram video
@kaicutch/Instagram

Woman Flips Her Car After Belting Out Ironic Britney Spears Lyric In Wild Viral Video

Whether we want to admit it or not, we've all had our fair share of carpool karaoke and maybe even imagined our car as our own personal recording studio.

But TikToker and Instagrammer Kaitlynn McCutcheon may have gotten too into her performance of Britney Spears' classic, "Hit Me Baby, One More Time," when the road and her car both said, "Bet."

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from ​@lynnshazeen's TikTok video
@lynnshazeen/TikTok

Woman Goes Viral After Revealing How Her Obsession With Matcha Landed Her In The Hospital

Let's be honest: Too much of anything isn't good for us. It's all about the balance!

But the media and social media trends have taught us that certain things are really good for us, encouraging us to be like the "very mindful and very demure" girls and take care of ourselves. One such example is drinking more matcha, especially if you really like coffee or think you have a caffeine addiction.

Keep ReadingShow less