Biden takes on Trump and promotes 'Infrastructure Decade' in Wisconsin
Consumer confidence has increased. The fear of a recession is decreasing. The economy is growing. And a corroded bridge in Wisconsin is getting more funding.
It's a wintry mix of positive news for President Biden, who traveled to the shores of a bay near Lake Superior on Thursday to stand at the foot of the Blatnik Bridge, a structure his administration said would have failed by 2030 without it an aid of 1 billion dollars. infusion provided by the bipartisan infrastructure bill Mr. Biden championed.
The president was there to talk about infrastructure and the economy, and to contrast his achievements with those of his predecessor and likely general election challenger, former President Donald J. Trump.
“Economic growth is stronger than it was during the Trump administration,” Mr. Biden said, wearing a casual sweater, as he addressed Wisconsin residents gathered at the Earth Rider Brewery in Superior, Wisconsin. “We clearly have more work to do. but we are making real progress.”
As the president spoke, Mr. Trump took the stand in a defamation lawsuit in New York, making a striking split-screen comparison that the Biden campaign has welcomed.
Mr. Biden and his advisers believe that projects like the Blatnik, taking place in the backyards of Americans living in battleground states like Wisconsin, could be enough to boost optimism and overcome pervasive skepticism about the state of the economy.
At his event, Mr. Biden spoke about the $6.1 billion invested in Wisconsin and the $5.7 billion in Minnesota, just across the bridge, that are supporting the agriculture, shipping and forestry industries in the upper Midwest. The Blatnik was rusted and clogged by construction and detours.
“For decades there was talk about replacing this bridge, but it never happened,” Mr. Biden said. “Until today.”
Bipartisan legislation or not, no Republican lawmakers gathered to greet Mr. Biden. (“I'm sorry the vast majority voted against it,” Mr. Biden said, including Representative Tom Tiffany, a Republican who represents the district where the bridge is located.)
The Democratic governors of both Wisconsin and Minnesota showed up. “This wouldn't have happened without Biden,” Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers told the crowd.
Several other Democrats, including Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota and Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, accompanied the president as he observed the bridge and later met with people in a taproom next to the brewery. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota sipped a glass of beer as she mingled next to Mr. Biden.
Even without no-show Republicans quickly closing ranks around Trump, there are other headwinds to overcome.
Mr. Biden has faced low approval ratings on the economy. And he has been criticized by other Democrats over whether it was smart of him to adopt Bidenomics as an eponymous effort to take credit for an economy that Americans have repeatedly indicated they are not enthusiastic about.
On Thursday, Mr. Biden seemed to have no qualms about it. At the brewery, he stood in front of a pole emblazoned with “Bidenomics” letters and attacked Mr. Trump for what he called “hollowing communities, closing communities and leaving Americans behind.”
For his part, Mr. Trump has attacked Mr. Biden on virtually everything, but has also falsely claimed that the low employment numbers under the Biden administration are not real.
Elsewhere in the Midwest, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen rarely took aim at Trump during a speech in Chicago.
“Our country's infrastructure has been deteriorating for decades,” Ms. Yellen said. “In the Trump administration, the idea of doing something about it was a punchline.”
There was truth in her comment. During Trump's presidency, he often deviated from speeches about infrastructure to attack his enemies. At his first Infrastructure Week-themed event in 2017, he accused James B. Comey, whom he fired as FBI director, of committing perjury and leaking to the news media. He later proposed a $2 trillion infrastructure package, without details on how he would get the money. The phrase “Infrastructure Week” became a running joke in Washington.
In November 2021, Mr. Biden signed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
“Instead of an infrastructure week, America is having an infrastructure decade,” Biden said, referring to the work his administration has done.
In a sign of how important Wisconsin will be in the run-up to the November election, Mr. Biden traveled there just three days after Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off a nationwide tour for reproductive rights at an event outside Milwaukee. Wisconsin is a battleground where his campaign is focused on wooing black voters, young voters and any voters who could help him wrest the state's 10 electoral votes from Mr. Trump.
Although Mr. Trump was in court, the Republican National Committee released a statement criticizing Mr. Biden for making the trip and blaming Bidenomics for economic problems.
“Of staggering inflation And negative economic growthWisconsinites are feeling the brunt of Joe Biden's failures,” the group's president, Ronna McDaniel, said in a statement. “Try as he might, it's too little and too late to impress workers and families who live paycheck to paycheck thanks to Bidenomics.”
Alan Rappeport contributed reporting from Washington.