(DCWatchdog.com) – President Joe Biden issued a plea to both Democrat and Republican state governors to bridge political divides and work together to boost the US economy after the coronavirus pandemic and improve Americans’ lives.
On Saturday, he hosted the annual National Governors Association dinner, with 31 state governors in attendance alongside Vice President Kamala Harris.
The dinner marked the first time Biden has hosted the annual event at the White House since its 2021 edition was held virtually, while the 2022 dinner took place at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Virginia estate.
“I hope we’re going to get a little bit – I’m going to try – a little bit less partisan and work on things that we can really get done to change people’s lives,” Biden said, as cited by Newsmax.
Before the event, he held meetings with state governors in the nation’s capital for several days.
The president pointed out the passage of laws on investing in infrastructure and domestic manufacturing of semiconductors as evidence of “some bipartisan progress.”
Biden added he was still “ready to fight, as you all are.” He noted that Republicans and Democrats would not always agree, but whenever they did, it always made a difference.
“We’re the United States of America. We can get big things done if we do it together,” the Democrat president told the attendees.
During the White House dinner, the chairman of the National Governors’ Association, New Jersey’s Democrat Governor, Phil Murphy, reiterated Biden’s praise of the recently passed bipartisan laws as game changers for the American economy.
He insisted that states have collaborated on mental health issues, disproving the “narrative that politics has gotten completely divisive.”
Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox of Utah, the vice-chair of the National Governors Association, declared that having Republicans and Democrats “break bread together” at the White House was “very symbolic.”
Cox stated that most Americans preferred to witness greater collaboration across the political aisle.
“This is what is missing in our country. It’s hard to hate up close,” the Utah governor said.
Perhaps the biggest no-show at Biden’s first White House annual governors’ dinner was Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis has not only challenged Biden’s agenda across the board – from COVID-19 restrictions to LGBT rights and gun rules but is increasingly emerging as a top contender for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.
What is your reaction to Biden calling for Democrat and Republican Governors to help bridge the political divide in the United States? Please share your thoughts by emailing [email protected]. Thank you.
