Though Democratic senators have publicly referred to congressional support for the Keystone XL Pipeline as “bipartisan” (a word rarely seen these days), mainstream news publications were reluctant to use that term after President Obama vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have green-lighted the project.
Reports in the national newspapers, the Associated Press and CBS News framed the veto as a rebuke to a Republican-favored policy, though the bill passed with more than two dozen Democratic votes in the House and nine in the Senate. Two Democratic governors also support the bill.
After the bill, which would have approved the construction of an oil pipeline from Canada through the U.S., was vetoed, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, said in a statement, “Watching bipartisan legislation come to a halt in one swift veto can be frustrating…”
In a Feb. 10 appearance on “Fox News,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said, “The bottom line is with nine bipartisan Democrats and Republicans working together, all we’re asking [the president] for is: Look at the bill, look at the jobs it creates, look at the security it gives our nation.”
Reporting on Obama’s veto, the New York Times called the pipeline “a symbol of the continuing struggle between environmentalists and conservatives,” adding, “Republicans insist that the pipeline will increase employment.”
But Democratic governors Jay Nixon of Missouri and Steve Bullock of Montana, one of the states along the proposed path of the pipeline, have also said the project would be a boon to the U.S. economy.
“If done correctly, the Keystone XL Pipeline project will be a shot in the arm to our economy by creating much-needed jobs,” Bullock wrote in a letter to Obama in 2013. On Tuesday, the Democrat denounced Obama’s veto.
Nixon made similar comments in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last year. “The approval and construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline will strengthen our economy, create jobs and promote North American energy independence,” Missouri’s governor wrote in March 2014.
The Washington Post also downplayed bipartisan support for the bill in its report on Obama’s veto. “[The bill] gathered enough Democratic votes to prevent a filibuster [in the Senate], and with a Republican in the White House the bill would have become law,” the report said. Republicans only needed seven Democrats to join them in passing the bill, but they got nine.
USA Today described Obama’s veto as “making good on a threat to reject a proposal embraced by Republicans…”
An Associated Press report, which was picked up by the websites for CBS and ABC News, said, “Democrats and environmental groups have sought to make the pipeline a poster child for the type of dirty energy sources they say are exacerbating global warming.”
“NBC News” made no reference at all to congressional Democrats in its write-up of the veto, instead referring to the “GOP-dominated Congress.”
In addition to elected Democrats around the country, Keystone received backing from groups — including many labor unions — closely tied to the Democratic Party.
In all aforementioned articles, the only time “bipartisan” was used was in a quote by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.
Priebus was quoted in the Times: “The fact [Obama] vetoed the bipartisan Keystone Pipeline in private shows how out of step he is with the priorities of the American people, who overwhelmingly support this vital jobs and infrastructure project.”
A Pew Research survey from March 2014 showed that 61 percent of the general public supported building the pipeline. Among Democrats, 49 percent support it.
