They believe that Mr. McConnell’s rigid defiance sets up a winning contrast for Mr. Biden as he continues to profess openness to working with Republicans. If such bipartisanship proves impossible, the officials argue, Democrats need only to point to the minority leader’s own words to explain why. “It is the same script we heard from McConnell for Obama,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. “Barack is ‘one term.’ Now he is saying ‘100 percent.’ It is not encouraging.”But the White House says it has not quite yet given up on Mr. McConnell and his colleagues. A White House adviser said on Tuesday that Mr. Biden would use the meeting with leaders to try to identify areas where the two parties could work together on infrastructure, helping struggling middle-class families and maintaining competitiveness with international economic rivals.

Source: New York Times May 11, 2021 23:32 UTC