Barrasso: Biden Talks About Uniting Country, But I Haven’t Seen It

Barrasso, in his first television appearance in more than a month, criticized Biden for doing more to divide the country than unite it.

EF
Ellen Fike

January 29, 20212 min read

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While President Joe Biden has called for unity in the country following the departure of former President Donald Trump, he has yet to act on his remarks, according to U.S. Sen. John Barrasso.

Barrasso, in his first television appearance in more than a month, criticized Biden for doing more to divide the country than unite it.

“He ran on a campaign for a year of uniting the country, bringing us all together and I thought he gave a great inaugural speech,” Barrasso told CNN’s John King. “But I’d like to see one thing he’s actually done to try to unite the country.”

Specifically, Barrasso condemned Biden’s halt of the Keystone XL pipeline, calling for a moratorium of oil and gas development on public lands and a call for a $15 minimum wage.

“The small business owners I’ve been talking to in Wyoming are saying if [the minimum wage hike] happens, I’m out of business,” he said.

The senator added that Senate Republicans want to find ways to work together with their Democratic counterparts, but Democrats don’t seem to want the same thing.

Barrasso also criticized Biden’s newly proposed coronavirus relief bill, a $1.9 trillion package that would include $1,400 stimulus checks, vaccine funding and also the minimum wage hike.

He told King that the Republicans weren’t just balking at the price tag of the bill, but also the provisions, mainly the minimum wage increase.

“We want to make sure people can get back to school and work and that they can get the vaccine,” Barrasso said. “Those are the critical issues we need to address.”

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Ellen Fike

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