Just a day after President Biden spoke of unity in his inaugural address to the nation, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said the Democratic president had gone “in the wrong direction”.
Speaking from the Senate floor on Thursday, the Kentucky Republican condemned several executive actions that Biden took on his first day in office, including revoking a key license for the Keystone XL pipeline, returning to the Paris climate deal and removing an adviser general appointed by Trump to the National Council for Labor Relations.
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“On the first day of the Biden administration, he took several big steps in the wrong direction,” said McConnell, adding that there is time for Biden “to remember that he does not owe his election to the extreme left.”
Republicans contested the Paris climate agreement, an international agreement with almost 200 nations joining with the intention of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reversing the human impact on climate change.
But Republican Party officials say the deal – from which President Trump almost immediately withdrew from the U.S. after taking office in 2017 – will impact manufacturing jobs and unfairly maintain the U.S. in an environmental standard not met by China or India.
McConnell, along with other Congressional members of the Republican Party, also questioned Biden’s decision to close the Keystone XL pipeline.
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Tribes of environmentalists and Native Americans have questioned the 1,200-mile pipeline since 2004 as it extracts oil from tar sands and traverses tribal territory.
Conservatives believe the move will negatively impact the oil and gas industry, along with employment in the sector.
Biden’s climate initiatives signify the strong stance his government will take in combating climate change in the United States and making policy changes aimed at environmentally conscious strategies.
But McConnell also reminded Biden and the lean Democratic majority in the Senate that Americans voted to maintain a divided Senate, with 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats, meaning that Republicans intend to challenge policies that they believe will have negative impacts on their voters.
“If and when our Democratic friends deviate from common sense, when they withdraw from common ground, when their proposals harm the common good – we will use the power that the American people have given us to push for the right,” said the minority leader. he said from the floor.
Some Democratic congressmen discussed removing the obstruction, a move that McConnell asked senators to rethink. Maintaining obstruction as a political tool means that Democrats would have to win at least 10 Republican votes for most legislation to pass the upper house – a challenge that could be difficult with liberal agendas.
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“The president can and must redirect his government to creating well-paid American jobs, without sacrificing our people’s livelihood to liberal symbolism,” said McConnell.