MSNBC host Rachel Maddow chided White House press secretary Jen Psaki for being too generous to Republicans as negotiations stall in President Biden’s first major legislative campaign.
Biden, and by extension Psaki, have been pushed on whether the White House’s efforts to get passed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package can be bipartisan, when that would require at least 10 Republicans in the Senate to join a united Democratic front with the two independents who caucus with them to overcome a filibuster. Otherwise, Democrats would have to resort to a process called budget reconciliation.
“I feel like the challenges that the administration has on Capitol Hill are more stark than you have been telling us in terms of the likelihood that Republicans are going to go along with anything that President Biden wants to do,” Maddow told Psaki in an interview Thursday evening.
Maddow added, “I believe you are being too nice about what Republicans are likely to do.”
Psaki insisted that Biden aides are not naive, thinking Republicans will “lay down and work with us overnight.”
“But we feel like we have to try,” Psaki said. “And then, we have a range of tools at our disposal to get relief to the public,” she continued, referring to the reconciliation budget process that requires only a simple majority.
On Thursday, Psaki also confirmed first lady Jill Biden will be involved in the administration’s task force aimed at reuniting migrant children separated from their families at the border under former President Donald Trump.
Biden was due to take immigration executive action on Friday, but his team delayed the rollout until next week after his homeland security secretary nominee, Alejandro Mayorkas, faced a Senate confirmation filibuster. Some Republican senators wanted Mayorkas to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, on top of the Senate Homeland Committee. But Mayorkas’s confirmation cleared the procedural hurdle Thursday, setting up a final vote for next Monday.
“She’s not going to be leading the task force,” Psaki said of the first lady. “I would expect that Ali Mayorkas, who we hope will be confirmed soon, will be playing a prominent role.”
