Republican Sen. Mitt Romney did not hold back when criticizing President Joe Biden’s first year in office.
When Meet the Press’s Chuck Todd asked the Utah senator what he believes the state of the nation is, Romney said the nation is “severely divided.”
“When he was elected, people were not looking for him to transform America,” Romney said. “They were looking to get back to normal, to stop the crazy. It seems like we’re continuing to see policy and promotions that are not accepted by the American people.”
Romney also pushed back at Democratic strategist and media contributor James Carville, who had appeared on Meet the Press prior to the senator and said he would tell Biden, “Soldier on. You know, you had a bad week, but you had a good year.”
“No, no, [Biden’s] had a bad year,” Romney said emphatically. “He’s had 52 weeks of bad weeks. People are 7% poorer now because of Biden inflation. Gasoline prices are, what, 50% higher than they were when he took office. The border is a mess. COVID was resurgent. He didn’t have in place the [COVID] tests people needed to keep themselves safe. There was a disaster in Afghanistan. Russia is now threatening Ukraine. Things are not going well.”
Despite the nation being divided, the Republican senator said there are plenty of issues on which Biden could get bipartisan collaboration within Congress, including family security, education, healthcare, and infrastructure. Romney noted that the Biden administration’s agenda is often too focused on control at the federal level, pointing to the recent voting rights legislation.
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“Recognize the Founders didn’t have that vision in mind,” Romney said. “They didn’t want an autocrat to be able to pull a lever in one place and change all the election laws. Instead, they spread that out over 50 states. I think in part to keep autocracy from finding its root here in this country. We can work together.”
Romney added that Biden’s comments in Georgia last Wednesday, which pushed for the passage of two Democratic-authored election bills while comparing those who opposed the legislation to white historical figures who backed slavery and segregation, did not suggest efforts to unite the country.
“You cannot have practices which discriminate against people based upon their ethnicity,” Romney said. “But what I think we have to point out here is a state like Georgia, which everybody is talking about because the president went there, it’s easier to vote in Georgia even under the new legislation than it is to vote in Delaware or to vote in New York or to vote in New Jersey. And no one is saying that New York has discriminatory practices. New York’s practices are more stringent, more difficult to vote there than Georgia.”
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The Republican senator offered little hope for Washington negotiations, saying that there are no efforts on Democrats’ part to work on a bipartisan basis rather than appeal only to a Democratic base.
