Biden highlights unity amid GOP’s disarray

President Biden on Wednesday held out the promised makeover of a dilapidated bridge over the Ohio River as a symbol of what can happen when Republicans and Democrats work together — even as he condemned what he labeled an “embarrassing” scene of GOP disarray back in Washington.

The Democratic president’s trip to the Brent Spence Bridge, which is getting a load of federal cash under the bipartisan infrastructure law, came as Washington was gripped by the GOP’s inability to unify behind a candidate for House speaker.

The bridge visit is part of a renewed push by Biden to highlight the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law, which contains $1 trillion for roads and bridges, broadband networks and water projects across America. The money will be critical not just for the communities getting the help but to the Democratic president’s political theory that voters are hungry for bipartisanship that delivers tangible results.

Biden was joined by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell — a frequent foil of Democrats — who greeted the president at the local airport and and rode with him in his limousine to the riverfront. McConnell was one of 19 Senate Republicans to support the infrastructure law and has said repairing the Brent Spence has long been a priority.

Biden’s appearance with McConnell was meant to appeal to newly empowered Republicans to find additional areas of cooperation in the new Congress.

“We all know these are really partisan times. But I always feel that no matter who gets elected, once it’s all over, we ought to look for things that we can agree on and try to do those, even while we have big differences on other things,” McConnell said in brief remarks before Biden took the stage, calling the bridge an example of bipartisanship that the “country needs to see.”