Trump promised to withhold any Republican’s financial support or endorsement backing if they voted for a large, costly infrastructure spending bill. It contains many controversial provisions and will be used as a gateway into a larger bill that includes a left-wing wishlist of packages.
After Saturday’s 67-27 vote, the Senate passed the $1.2 trillion spending bill. The president threatened to withhold his support.
To advance legislation for further discussion and negotiation, 18 Republicans joined 49 Democrats, well exceeding the threshold of 60 votes filibuster.
Trump said in a statement that Republican support for the measure was a “disgrace” to Save America PAC and stated that Democrats would use it against him next year’s midterm elections.
“Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill will be used against the Republican Party in the upcoming elections in 2022 and 2024,” he said.
“It will be very hard for me to endorse anyone foolish enough to vote in favor of this deal,” Trump added.
The former president then turned his ire towards a familiar name, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
“If Mitch McConnell was smart, which we’ve seen no evidence of, he would use the debt ceiling card to negotiate a good infrastructure package,” Trump said, suggesting Republicans could vote against raising the debt ceiling again unless they got a better deal in the infrastructure package.
McConnell was one of the 18 Republicans who voted to advance the bill.
“Republicans and Democrats have radically different visions these days, but both those visions include physical infrastructure that works for all of our citizens,” the GOP leader said after the vote.
“The investments this bill will make are not just necessary, in many cases, they are overdue. Our country has real needs in this area,” McConnell added.
But Trump said the 2,700-plus page bill “was a gift to the Democrat Party, compliments of Mitch McConnell and some RINOs, who have no idea what they are doing.”
He went on to mention the follow-on legislation that Democrats are planning.
“Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats understand to get the horrendous $3.5 trillion, actually $5 trillion, Green New Deal bill done in the House,” said Trump.
“Mitch is playing right into Nancy’s hands. [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer is already going around saying this is a big victory for the Democrats,” Trump added.
The final vote will be held next week. However, after the support that the Republicans gave to the original vote to continue the debate, it seems certain that the legislation in some form will pass the chamber and return to the House for consideration.
In an interview with Fox News host Dan Bongino on Saturday, Trump praised his “Operation Warp Speed” vaccine program, while criticizing the COVID-19 recommendations of the Biden administration for schools.
“I think if we didn’t come up during the Trump administration with the vaccine, you could have 100 million people dead just like you had in 1917,” Trump said, a reference to the Spanish Flu outbreak which came in full force in 1918 and killed tens of millions of people worldwide.
He said that schools should reopen in the fall for in-person classes to avoid permanent injury to children.
“The schools have to open. These young people are losing a big part of their life and they’re not going to recover from it,” the former president said.
