House Democrats are delivering a blunt message to the White House: Stop blindsiding us.
In two embarrassing episodes in just the past month alone, House Democrats were aghast as they watched the White House send mixed messages to Congress on key issues – and ended up leaving them in a lurch.
The White House issued statements earlier this year that stopped short of a veto threat, but said that President Joe Biden “opposes” GOP-led efforts to scrap the District of Columbia’s new crime law and to officially end the designation that the United States remains in a Covid-19 public health emergency.
When the House voted last month on both issues, Democrats largely fell in line and sided with the White House.
Yet before the Senate voted this month, the White House changed its tune and indicated that Biden would sign those GOP measures into law, effectively giving ammunition to Republicans to paint House Democrats as out of the mainstream on the hot-button issues of crime and Covid.
“Definitely,” Rep. Dan Kildee, who voted against both GOP resolutions and represents a swing Michigan district, said when asked if there’s frustration with the White House.
Both administration statements, he said, “lacked enough clarity that it gave them a chance to reverse course after the House votes, and we don’t want to go through that again.”
“I can handle any policy position that they take,” Kildee told CNN. “Because sometimes, most of the time, I’m with them, but when I’m not, I’m not. … But none of that excuses the lack of clarity, or putting us in a position where we vote, and then there’s a change of heart. That’s very unhelpful.”
Many Democrats agree.
“If someone said, ‘This is my strongly held opinion. I hope you all are aligned with my strongly held opinion.’ And then a…
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