'Certainly not my intent': Biden walks back 'tandem' infrastructure bill remarks

After enraging Republicans and putting his own bipartisan deal in jeopardy, President Joe Biden issued a lengthy statement on Saturday to walk back comments linking an infrastructure deal to a Democrat-only plan.

Biden infuriated Republican negotiators on Thursday after he said he would refuse to sign the infrastructure package until he was sent a Democrat-only spending package, which is expected to include a litany of items the GOP has long rejected.

“That statement understandably upset some Republicans, who do not see the two plans as linked; they are hoping to defeat my Families Plan — and do not want their support for the infrastructure plan to be seen as aiding passage of the Families Plan,” Biden said in the statement. “My comments also created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent.”

The statement went on to say, “So to be clear: our bipartisan agreement does not preclude Republicans from attempting to defeat my Families Plan; likewise, they should have no objections to my devoted efforts to pass that Families Plan and other proposals in tandem. We will let the American people — and the Congress — decide.”

Some Republicans on Friday said they viewed Biden’s comments as a deal breaker, saying the president had not in negotiations mentioned an explicit tie between it and the Democratic package.

The reversal comes after other, less overt attempts at allaying the backlash fell flat.

On Friday, top aides made calls to the Hill to enact damage control. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also attempted to soften the president’s remarks on Friday, noting it was up to congressional leaders to control the fate of legislation.

But while progressives applauded Biden’s remarks, moderate Democrats were equally frustrated with the president’s remarks, with several top Democrats privately saying the president had just put months of work at risk.

The fears are especially acute, they say, because the actual language of the deal has not yet been written.

Beyond his Saturday comments, Biden on Tuesday will travel the country to highlight the economic benefits of the bipartisan package, according to a White House official.

That includes delivering remarks in the battleground state of Wisconsin, which Biden won by less than a percentage point.