A former Trump campaign adviser defended former Vice President Joe Biden after the centrist Democratic candidate claimed that he would be able to break through legislative gridlock in Washington.
“The Senate is a club — it’s one of the most elite clubs in the world,” Jack Kingston, a senior adviser to the 2016 Trump campaign, told Hill.TV on Wednesday. “I think he would have the ability to sit down and get some things done in a way that Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — also members — would not be able to do.”
Biden has repeatedly pointed to his track record working with Republican colleagues to pass bipartisan legislation.
Earlier this year, he proclaimed that Republicans would have “an epiphany” and start working more with Democrats once President Trump left office.
Biden appeared to elaborate on those comments Tuesday, saying “all politics is the logical extension of human nature, personal relationships.”
He also predicted that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would become “mildly cooperative” with Democrats if Trump was no longer president.
“I’m not suggesting all of a sudden everyone’s going to project a new sense of courage and political courage,” Biden said during fundraiser in New York. “What I’m suggesting [is] that the dynamic changes when the right vote, as opposed to the vote you don’t agree with, becomes a possibility if you vote for it.
“And so that’s why I think you’re going to see even Mitch McConnell changing some ideas or being more ― how can I say ― mildly cooperative,” he added later to laughter from the crowd.
However, Biden has faced some criticism for centering much of his campaign on his willingness and ability to work with Republicans.
The former Vice President received backlash last month after saying he would be willing to consider a Republican running mate in 2020, but he stopped short of naming which members of the other party he’d pick for the spot.
— Tess Bonn
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