Republican Strategists: GOP Grassroots Reject Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Plans as Mitch McConnell Deliberates

Republican strategists believe the grassroots of the Republican Party reject President Joe Biden’s infrastructure initiatives as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) weighs his position.

Vin Weber, a Republican strategist, told the Hill, “When you get to the grassroots of the Republican Party base there’s very little interest in passing anything that Joe Biden signs into law.”

“Particularly if there’s a couple trillion dollars in social welfare spending and it’s perceived Republicans acted in a way that facilitated that, there’s going to be backlash against Republicans at the grassroots level,” he said. “I think the grassroots of the party is increasingly anti-Biden.”

Another GOP strategist in Tennessee, Chip Saltsman, echoed Weber’s thoughts, saying the base of the Republican Party is not interested in working with Biden, who has ruled far-left since his inauguration.

“The Republican grassroots, they’re not interested in any Joe Biden legislation passing,” he said about Republicans in the middle of the country.

A third GOP strategist and pollster, Jim McLaughlin, also told the Hill an agreement signed into law would be good for Biden.

“It’s a good photo-op for him,” said McLaughlin of Biden in reference to the 2022 midterms in which Democrats are hard-pressed to keep the House. “It’s a piece of the puzzle and could help him.

“I can remember conversations with White House folks [during the Trump administration] and asking at one point, ‘Why can’t we do infrastructure?’ and they said because Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want to give us a win,” McLaughlin added.

Republican strategists alerting establishment Republicans as to the mood of the party outside Washington, DC, comes as McConnell has not declared whether he will support Biden’s infrastructure deal.

“I haven’t decided yet,” he said Monday. “We need to get a score, so we need to see whether the proposal is credibly paid for.”

McConnell also wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to “walk-back their threats that they will refuse to send the president a bipartisan infrastructure bill unless they also separately pass trillions of dollars for unrelated tax hikes, wasteful spending, and Green New Deal socialism.”

McConnell continued, “then President Biden’s walk-back of his veto threat would be a hollow gesture.”