© Reuters. US President Joe Biden speaks with US Governors and their spouses for a gala dinner in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA February 11, 2023 REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
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(This February 11 story has been corrected to say that the New Jersey Governor’s name is Phil Murphy, not Chris Murphy, in paragraph 12)
by Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden called on Republican and Democratic governors on Saturday to continue working across political divides to improve the lives of Americans and rebuild the economy after hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at a White House black-tie dinner attended by Vice President Kamala Harris and 31 governors, Biden said the passage of infrastructure investment laws and domestic semiconductor manufacturing by Republicans and Democrats was evidence of “some progress bipartisan”.
“I hope we’re going to be a little bit, I’m going to try, a little bit less partisan and work on things that we can really do to change people’s lives,” Biden said after days of governors’ meetings in Washington.
He said he was still “ready to fight, just like all of you,” and that Republicans and Democrats wouldn’t always agree, but when they worked together, they made a difference.
Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah, vice president of the National Governors Association, said it was “very symbolic” for Republicans and Democrats to “break bread together” at the White House.
Cox added that he believed most Americans wanted to see more collaboration in the political aisle.
“This is what our country is missing,” he said, adding: “It’s hard to hate up close.”
Notable absent from the dinner was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has challenged Biden’s agenda on a wide range of fronts, from gun safety to LGBTQ rights.
Country-western singer Brad Paisley played guitar and performed his song “American Saturday Night” after dinner, telling the crowd that he had changed the second line of the song “because it mentioned Russia and I don’t do that anymore.” “.
Instead, he sang: “She’s got Brazilian leather boots on the pedal of a German car. There’s a Ukrainian flag hanging behind the bar.”
Biden’s comments echoed his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday, in which he challenged Republicans to help unite the country.
Bipartisan laws passed last year were a game changer for the American economy, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who chairs the association, said Friday at a White House governors event.
The ability of states to work together on other issues, such as mental health, refuted the “narrative that politics has become completely divisive,” he added.