Biden: Republicans will want to work with Dems after Trump leaves office

[brooklynite]

Politico

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday he expects Republicans will have an "epiphany" when President Donald Trump leaves office, and will embrace working with Democratic colleagues.

"I just think there is a way, and the thing that will fundamentally change things is with Donald Trump out of the White House. Not a joke. You will see an epiphany occur among many of my Republican friends," Biden said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire. "It's already beginning in the House now ... If we can't change, we're in trouble. This nation cannot function without generating consensus. It can't do it."

Biden launched his campaign in April with a video announcement featuring staunchly anti-Trump rhetoric, classifying the 2020 election as a "battle for the soul of this nation." He also said if Trump won another four years in the White House, that he would "forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation."

"What happens is if you can't generate consensus under our system of separated powers, all the power moves to the executive," Biden said Tuesday. "It gives excuses then to say I'm going to enact by executive order to do something because nothing's getting done. That's the president and his team's whole rationale for what they're doing."

[guillaumeb]

1. One can hope.

But the GOP engaged in over 400 filibusters while Biden was the VP under President Obama.

Has he already forgotten this?

[tymorial]

5. I think the point is they will work more than they are now

[hatrack]

37. More than nothing isn't necessarily very much . . .

As for "epiphanies", I'll keep walking up and down the sidewalk in front of my house waiting for Jennifer Lawrence to appear and sweep me off my feet.

In case you were wondering, that will happen around the same time that these treasonous corrupt fucks start getting all "bipartisan" with the next Democratic president.

[guillaumeb]

44. And he can hope that this occurs.

My own opinion is that the current leadership of the GOP believes in one Party rule.

[elleng]

2. 'This nation cannot function without generating consensus. It can't do it.'

[KayF]

3. back to the good old days before Trump

like when Obama was president and the GOP was super-cooperative.

[DownriverDem]

18. Hello?

That's how it's supposed to work. Don't you think Warren would want to work with both sides? I don't get your negativity.

[KayF]

30. no, Warren is VERY different in this regard

I'm very familiar with Biden, when he was in Congress he stood out among Democrats as being unusually chummy with Republicans. Lindsey Graham is his bro, as president Biden will side on some things with his old Senate chums in a way that Warren won't.

[dhol82]

4. What is he smoking?

Or, should that be smocking?

[dalton99a]

6. Hey, Joe, they are not your friends anymore.

It’s hard to reconcile Biden’s stated optimism with what Democrats have seen on the ground in Washington in recent years. After all, it’s not as though there was broad bipartisan comity before Trump’s ascension in the party, something that Barack Obama’s vice president should certainly know.

After Obama was inaugurated in 2009, Republican leaders in Washington made an explicit effort to block his agenda, with then-House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) promising that his party would “do everything — and I mean everything we can do — to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can.” Senate Majority Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) famously announced that the “single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Still, Obama made a prediction similar to Biden’s ahead of the 2012 election.

“I believe that if we’re successful in this election, when we’re successful in this election, that the fever may break,” he said of Republican obstinance, “because there’s a tradition in the Republican Party of more common sense than that.”

The fever didn’t break. Although McConnell didn’t make Obama a one-term president, he was successful at stymieing Democratic legislation during his presidency. McConnell allowed a government shutdown in 2013 in an effort to defund Obama’s Affordable Care Act and blocked numerous judicial appointments, including Obama’s last Supreme Court nominee. McConnell effectively held the seat open until after the 2016 election, allowing Trump to appoint his first justice right after taking office and to fill 112 other federal bench seats.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/14/is-bidens-prediction-republican-post-trump-epiphany-campaign-rhetoric-or-obliviousness/

[DownriverDem]

20. Come on

That is how it should go. Don't you want both sides to work together?

[LuvNewcastle]

7. He's absolutely right.

Congress has abdicated its responsibilities for too long, and the presidency has grown too powerful. We need a President who wants to restrain his or her activities within constitutional boundaries. No more sending troops overseas when your popularity is faltering.

[femmedem]

8. I hope he's right but I think he's wrong.

Because before there was Trump, there was Merrick Garland.

[Demit]

9. Mitch McConnell will embrace working with Democrats once Trump isn't around.

That's sounds just a wee bit delusional to me.

[Nanjeanne]

10. I thought Biden was anti marijuana legalization? He's smoking something!

[corbettkroehler]

42. This!

Let's see - 2 quick Obama examples:

1) The American Jobs Act

2) Supreme Court vacancy

[TCJ70]

11. Is that what this guy expects after 8 years of being Obama's VP?

Good grief...come on, Joe.

[Va Lefty]

12. Because they have been so cooperative in the past

Bipartisanship is dead. It was murdered by Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay and Mitch McConnell

[dalton99a]

14. And Joe knows it:

Link to tweet

[Saviolo]

13. Joe. Joe, Joe, Joe...

They're just not that into you.

Mitch McConnell would filibuster Jesus if he thought it would let him hold onto power for 10 more minutes.

[pangaia]

15. SARCASM,... right?

WHO is he kidding??

[4now]

16. We won't know until the time comes

and if anyone can do it Biden can.

[jalan48]

17. On tax cuts. That will be it.

[Celerity]

22. add bank deregulation and giving more for the security/war state than even Trump/Biden asks for

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/6/17086452/democrats-dodd-frank

https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/07/14/most-house-democrats-just-voted-for-a-defense-budget-far-bigger-than-trumps/#654050bb6ea0

[jalan48]

41. Yep-big Defense budgets are a must!

[TCJ70]

25. I'm sure they'd be down for cutting SS/Medicare/anything that helps people. N/t

[jalan48]

40. I totally forgot about the Grand Bargain-maybe it's still a thing.

[yaesu]

19. they will only work with dems to destroy safety nets, nope, we played that game before

lets not fall for that crap again.

[delisen]

35. Republicans are still geared up to end women's rights

The recent Supreme Court decision overturning a precedent show how they intend to do it.

Republicans blocked legislation for all the years leading up to Trump-starting with the Affordable Care Act. They have also taken Russian oligarch money-don't see that stopping or being stopped.

Without the Senate turning majority Democratic in 2020 (and Democrats widening their majority in the House) a Democratic agenda is not going to succeed.

There are state legislatures which have to increase Democratic seats-we lost so many going back to 2010 when we suffered the backlash from getting the Affordable care Act passed-a major achievement which came at a price, as many great achievements do.

One has to go back decades to find a time wen there was a Republican Party that worked in any way for the good of the 99% and did not exploit racial tensions and anti-female resentment in order to increase income inequality.

We have reached an ultimate crossroad. We have to fight hard and win.

We can't validate what is happening today by trusting that there will be a change of heart in the opposition.

During the Cold War more than a generation of Catholic school children spent lots of time praying for the conversion of the USSR and the end of communism. The USSR finally fell apart-but I don't think it was because the prayers worked.

[CanonRay]

21. Sorry Joe

You're fucking dreaming. Remember that Supreme Court seat McChinless screwed us out of? Nothing to do with Trump.

[Celerity]

26. McChinless

[Autumn]

23. Yes Joe. I remember how well they worked with Obama before Trump was elected.

[mcar]

24. Love Joe, but no, they won't

[loyalsister]

27. Tip O'Neill is long gone

Along with the most influential politicians from the Reagan era. Even the very sporadic, disingenuous bipartisan spirit from the Clinton years is history.
I'm not confident that bipartisanship would mean anything other than Democrats moving rightward as happened post Reagan.

[Kurt V.]

28. name one time in all history an epiphany happed to a group

[dalton99a]

31. The three wise men who went to see baby Jesus

and gave him fragrance products

[Kurt V.]

34. they were just late for the baby shower

[50 Shades Of Blue]

29. Republicans will redouble their efforts to stymie Democrats if they lose the White House.

[dlk]

32. Does Biden Remember What Republicans Were Like to Work with When He was Vice President?

Republicans are the same now as they were then, and have no reason to change their obstructionist ways. Paul Krugman recently wrote an editorial addressing this very issue.

[robbedvoter]

33. Was he asleep while VP? Trump wasn't there.

Neither was sanity. SCOTUS.

[Jacoby365]

36. Maybe. But only if McConnell is gone.

[LAS14]

38. Yeah???? Like they worked with Obama??????? nt

[muntrv]

39. Not holding my breath.

[comradebillyboy]

43. It's a great campaign message but I sure hope Biden

doesn't believe it's really true.