Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said on Sunday that he still trusted President Joe Biden to sign a bipartisan “infrastructure” deal even after he vowed to veto it if Democrats don’t also pass a massive progressive wish list through the budget reconciliation process.
“I don’t know exactly where everybody is after the weekend,” Romney told CNN.
“I certainly can understand why, not only myself, but a lot of my colleagues were very concerned about what the president was saying on Friday,” he continued. “But I think the waters have been calmed by what he said on Saturday. I do trust the president.”
Biden has flip-flopped on the $1.2 bipartisan infrastructure deal three times since he unveiled it last week.
At first, Biden praised the deal as a necessary compromise. But just a few hours later, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she would not bring the bill to the House floor for a vote unless Biden’s “human infrastructure” plan was also introduced as legislation, Biden agreed that the two bills must “come in tandem.”
“If this is the only thing that comes to me, I’m not signing it. It’s in tandem,” he said.
Republicans slammed Biden for undermining their attempts at negotiation, with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., calling the president’s strategy “extortion.”
Shortly thereafter, Biden reversed course again, promising to sign the bill.
His earlier comments “created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to,” he said. “That was certainly not my intent.”
