Mitch McConnell complained during an interview on Wednesday that President Joe Biden has not spoken with him since the presidential inauguration.
In an appearance on Fox News, the Senate minority leader said he had not been invited to the White House so far during this administration, claiming that Democrats are not interested in acting in a bipartisan fashion.
Host Bill Hemmer asked when he had last spoken with the president, to which Mr McConnell replied: “I don’t believe I have spoken with him since he was sworn in. We had a couple of conversations before that.”
Mr McConnell’s office clarified that the president and minority leader have spoken regarding the situation in Myanmar since the inauguration, but that the context of the comments remains regarding reaching bipartisan consensus on the economic agenda for the country.
When Mr Hemmer noted that 10 Republicans were invited to the White House in early February, Mr McConnell said that Democrats “are not interested in doing anything on a bipartisan basis in the political centre”.
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He added: “They’d be more than happy to pick off a few of our members and do what they would like to do.”
“They're going hard left,” he continued after describing the proposed $3 trillion infrastructure package as a “Trojan horse” that includes massive “tax increases”.
“They misread the election. It's a 50-50 Senate and a very narrow Democratic majority in the House, not a mandate to turn America into Bernie Sanders's view of what America ought to be.”
Mr McConnell was also asked about the Democratic opposition to the filibuster on the grounds it is racist.
He dismissed the belief, arguing that the filibuster pre-dates debates regarding civil rights.
The filibuster has been used as a legislative tool by Republicans to oppose civil rights bills on a number of occasions.
