Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm dismissed President Joe Biden’s failure to pass the infrastructure and accompanying spending bills prior to his trip overseas.
Granholm joined NBC’s Chuck Todd on Sunday’s broadcast of “Meet the Press” where she argued that despite the fact that Democrats still appeared to be struggling to reach a deal within their own party, the negotiations proved that Biden was able to unite them. (RELATED: ‘A Little Tone Deaf’: Meghan McCain Presses Energy Secretary Over Biden Telling Miners ‘Learn To Code’)
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Todd began the interview by asking Granholm to weigh in on the Capitol Hill drama surrounding the president’s Build Back Better agenda. He noted that yet another self-imposed deadline – Oct. 31 – looked poised to come and go without Democrats agreeing on a deal that would get either bill passed.
“Here we are. The second time in a month we’ve gone through this drama on Capitol Hill,” Todd began. “What happened?”
“What happened is that the progressives came out unanimously supporting what was in the framework. They just had to see it. They had to look at the language which was released on Friday,” Granholm replied, arguing that even without a deal in place, Biden could go to Glasgow with the confidence that he had “100% unanimity in the Democratic Caucus in the House.”
“That is really bringing people together over this agenda,” Granholm continued, claiming that it was proof of progress that Democrats were arguing about when to vote rather than what was in the bills.
“I want to put up something. Abigail Spanberger, she’s a member of Congress in a swing district in Virginia … She said, ‘Because people chose to be obstructionists, we’re not delivering these things to my state and the rest of the country. I guess we’ll just wait, because apparently failing roads and bridges can just wait in the minds of some people,'” Todd said.
Granholm pushed back, saying that she believed Spanberger had made that statement before some of the far left holdouts in the House had come around. She then pivoted to explain some of the provisions that were in the bill.
“Look, this is a case where I’ve asked this, where the political eye is bigger than the political stomach when you guys proposed what you did, because this is a case where you’ve overpromised and underdelivered,” Todd pressed, arguing that for many people, the problem was what was being left out of the bill. Granholm continued to outline more of what the bill was designed to accomplish.
“You’re doing a terrific job of selling what’s in it. The problem is there’s a whole bunch of people disappointed in what’s not in it,” Todd objected.
“You don’t get everything you ask for all the time,” Granholm said, noting that compromise was part of the process. “You are not so unrealistic to think the president is going to get everything he wants.”