Biden on trusting Republicans on infrastructure: “I’ve worked with a lot of these who are people in the room. I know them.”
Delivering remarks after announcing a deal with a group of Republican senators on infrastructure, President Biden responded to a question about trusting Republicans on the agreement. Biden said, “I’ve worked with a lot of these people who are in the room. I know them.” He later added, “I trust them when they say, ‘This is the deal. We’ll stick with the deal.’”
Video transcript
- Talk a little more about your interactions with Republicans specifically. You said earlier, "They've given me their word. Where I come from, that's good enough for me." To skeptics in your own party, what is it about the conversations you've had recently with Republicans [INAUDIBLE]?
JOE BIDEN: Number one, I work with a lot of these people who are in the room. I know them. Everybody knows, and you guys know, when certain senators tell you something, they mean it. And others you take-- you discount. Where I come from and in my years in the Senate, the single greatest currency you have is your word, keeping your word. Mitt Romney has never broken his word to me. You know, the Senator from Alaska, the Senator from New Hampshire, they've never broken their word-- from Maine-- they've never broken their word, they're friends.
And so the people I was with today are people that I trust. I don't agree with them on a lot of things, but I trust them when they say, this is a deal, we'll stick to the deal. Just like I doubt whether you'll find any one of them say they don't trust me when I said, OK, this is the deal on these issues. This is a deal we'll stick with. But for example, I made it clear today, there's other things in the environment I want to get done. I think we should have the $300 billion tax credit for dealing with the environment. It will be a giant tax cut for corporations, but it will also be a giant move toward weatherizing every building in America and all the things that we need to do. So there's things-- And so when I said we agree, I'm not going to go back and renegotiate the [? Amtrak ?] piece, but I am going to fight for trying to get $300 billion more for tax credits for the environment.
