“Fox News Sunday” anchor Chris Wallace said Friday that Republicans were wise to stay out of the fray while Democrats were “self-destructing” over infrastructure deals.
Wallace made an appearance on “America’s Newsroom,” speaking with anchors Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino about the Democratic Party’s ongoing struggle to reach a consensus on both the infrastructure bill and the accompanying $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. (RELATED: ‘Why Didn’t You Build, Forgive Me, A Wall?’: Chris Wallace Confronts Mayorkas On ‘Flood’ Of Migrants At The Border)
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Hemmer began the segment by saying that the more moderate Democratic Senators — specifically West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema — were the people “of the hour.”
“The Wall Street Journal frames it this way, Chris, I want you to react: ‘Democrats may be angry, but as the days go by they may recognize that Mr. Manchin is doing them a favor. With President Biden abdicating to the left, the West Virginian is providing a reality check on progressive excess,” Hemmer said, turning to Wallace. (RELATED: ‘A Really, Really Tough Month’: Martha MacCallum Says Democrats Are Pushing Infrastructure Because They Need A Win)
“Absolutely. I think a lot of Democrats are scratching their heads because, remember, when Joe Biden got the Democratic nomination he beat people far to the left like Bernie Sanders, like Elizabeth Warren, running as a centrist and yet he seems to be espousing a lot of the Sanders/Warren agenda going for this $3 1/2 trillion spending bill,” Wallace replied, saying that he was not surprised to see Manchin and Sinema balk at that.
“You are exactly right to a certain degree Manchin and Sinema are saying, ‘Wait a minute. That isn’t how you got the nomination in the first place, it isn’t how you got elected president beating Donald Trump, so let’s go back to first principles,'” he continued.
“The question I get a lot is, ‘What happened to Joe Biden?'” Wallace added. “I think at some point between the election and when he started being president after the oath of office on January 20th, I think he got swept up in the transformational FDR or LBJ great society new deal, but he wasn’t elected with a mandate and didn’t have those kinds of majorities — Roosevelt or LBJ majorities — in the House and Senate. So maybe Manchin and Sinema are giving Democrats a reality check.”
Perino weighed in with her question then, asking about Republicans and why they weren’t really getting involved in the negotiations.
“Basically they’ve just sat back and watched all of this happen,” she said.
“Yeah. Why would they get involved? You know, when your enemy is self-destructing – or opponent in this case, I guess — is self-destructing stay out of the way,” Wallace agreed.
Wallace went on to argue that Republicans had pulled their weight in passing the bill to fund the government and the bipartisan infrastructure bill in the Senate, adding that Democrats needed to come to an agreement soon if they did not want to see the reconciliation package’s price tag driven down further.