“We just talked about Burma – an issue I’ve been interested in for a long time,” McConnell told CNN about his February conversation, although he had previously said he also talked about the budget process and covid relief during the call.
But the White House has a different account.
“They talk to him regularly,” White House Press Secretary Jane Sasaki said Wednesday. The two men, who have worked together in the Senate for more than two decades, declined to elaborate on anything other than a “long friendship.”
When pressed for more details, Pasaki exclaimed, “I have no call now, I don’t think so, read for you, which we won’t make a case for.”
South Carolina G.O.P. Sen. Lindsay Graham said, “The story is that what happened to the old Biden was what Biden called a” personal disappointment “in December. The two have not spoken since he took office.
The new president has not spoken to House House GOP leader Capin McCarthy since the opening day. Since he became president he has yet to speak with House No. 2 Republican, Steve Scalis, nor the Senate’s G.O.P. The whip has reached out to John Thun.
“No,” Tumey, who plans to expand his background probe into bilateral arms sales, has been on hold for eight years, when asked if he had heard from Biden on the issue.
Has he heard from Biden since January 20th?
“No,” Tumey said.
Prior to taking office, Biden often boasted about his ability to work around the wing, even in deeply divided Washington Washington. During the transition he told the skeptics clearly: “Look at me. Look at me.”
But since then, a new definition of bipartisanship has emerged, with Republicans standing in line against its agenda. Privately, Biden told Senate Democrats in a virtual meeting this week that what voters say defines bipartisanship, not what McConnell says, according to a person familiar with his remarks. And his assistants echo the same sentiment.
“He does not believe that bipartisanship is defined by the peep code here,” Pasaki said in a White House briefing on Wednesday. “They believe in how we can relieve the American people.”
Collins says she suggested that Biden meet once a week with Senate Majority Leaders Chuck Schumer and McConnell, as top party leaders regularly meet with then-President George W. Bush. Met with Bush while Chamber was in session during his tenure. That has not happened yet.
“I’d love to see it again,” Collins said.
White House officials say they have been forced to limit large meetings due to the epidemic, but they have noted that in addition to reaching out with senior aides, regular bilateral meetings have also been held, including a recent meeting on infrastructure. In his first meeting with legislators, Byden was given 10 G.O.P. The group of senators was invited to discuss the Covid-19 relief, although it was later backed by Democrats only after it deemed the Republican approach inappropriate. Went ahead with a યોજના 1.9 trillion relief plan.
Democrats say the president and his top aides communicate regularly with legislators from both parties, arguing that the approach is very different from that of Donald Trump, who as president spoke primarily to the most loyal Republicans and did not speak to them. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the last 15 months of her term.
Delaware Democrat Sen. Chris Koons, who has been sitting in Biden on the Senate seat for 36 years, said the first group he invited to the White House were 10 Republicans.
Yet some Republicans who have reached out to the White House say they have heard nothing back – whether it’s McCarthy’s immigration or Sen. Reza’s policy to the North Dakota Republican Sen. Kevin asks for Kramer’s seat.
“The promise of being bipartisan may be one of the only political promises I’ve seen in my lifetime,” Kramer said.
But while many Republicans haven’t heard from the president, some have caught his attention.
Some Republicans have spoken to the president
Biden has picked up the phone to talk to some Republicans, including Grassley, the most senior Senate Republican, who told CNN that he and Biden walked about two minutes a few weeks ago. Grassley told him they could work together to reduce the price of prescription drugs.
Asked why the call was made, Grassley said of his former Senate colleague: “I liked something about it.”
Grassley added: “He’s got excessive policies but you can’t help as an individual.”
Collins, a key centrist Republican who worked with Biden when he was in the Senate for many years, said he has had a very good conversation with Biden since he became president.
“My personal conversations with the President have been both productive, kind, welcoming,” he said, while frustrated acknowledging his initial interactions with some of Biden’s top employees, even though she believes she is behind those issues later. “Constructive conversation with Biden chief Ron Klein last week”.
Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman has attended two meetings with Biden – one on the Covid Relief Bill and the other, to discuss legislation being pushed back on China.
“I wish they would be more interested in working with us on a bilateral basis. If you think about it. What have we done on a bilateral basis? Really nothing,” Portman said he has voted for most of Biden’s candidates, something that is bilateral. Consider the act. “I’m talking to the White House to encourage them to do more.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a West Virginia Republican, was at a White House infrastructure meeting on covid-relief. She said she was satisfied with the White House’s reach, but when asked if she was satisfied with the president and his team listening to her suggestions, she stopped laughing.
“That’s a different question,” Capito said.
Republican Cornyn of Texas echoed Biden’s outlook on China’s issues and concerns about sensitive supply chains. He attended a “good meeting” at the White House on the issue, which Biden attended. Kornen said he has also been “well followed” by the White House.
He said he suspected people around Biden were concerned that former President Barack Obama had tried to give Republicans more access and that this had limited his ability to pass his agenda.
“This is the only thing we have reached in the bilateral area,” he said. “In the Senate of -0-50, it’s true that they can jam some things, but I think they’ll leave a lot of things on the table, which they might be able to do.”
White House officials will not discuss how much Biden interacts with Republicans of late.
“We’re definitely not going to read all those calls, and I hope it will continue,” Pasaki said of the outreach.
But McConnell said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday that he had “not spoken to Biden since he was sworn in,” after the GOP leader clarified to CNN that he had only spoken to Biden on the Burma issue.
The next day when Pusaki was asked about the claims of his regular discussions with the President, McConnell went to the chamber and did not answer.
CNN’s Jeff Zelany and Lennon Fox contributed to the report.
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