WASHINGTON — First lady Jill Biden lamented the partisanship pervading Capitol Hill and state politics, telling White House governors she wished more lawmakers would follow their lead.
She spoke Friday in the East Room of the White House with heads of state who were in Washington for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association. During her brief remarks, Biden recalled something Vermont’s Republican governor, Phil Scott, told her when she visited his state last year.
“What you said really stuck with me,” Biden said. “You said that pure party politics has never contributed to real solutions, and that we can and should put progress over politics, especially when it comes to issues that the majority of Americans agree on.”
That majority, Biden said, is “exhausted.”
“As Governor Cox often notes, they are frustrated by a Congress that is often gridlocked, and by those who too often treat government like a sport with an us-versus-them mentality and a knee-jerk reaction to to oppose. you know the other team is supporting,” Biden said, referring to Utah Governor Spencer Cox, also a Republican who is the current chairman of the Governors Association.
But the group of governors in the White House shows that bipartisanship is possible, Biden said.
“I wish lawmakers on the Hill would follow your lead,” she added.