WASHINGTON — When Joe Biden stepped to the lectern in the shadow of the Brent Spence Bridge in northern Kentucky this month, he couldn’t stop showering praise on the state’s senior Republican senator, who had fought to repair the ramshackle span for decades.
It was quite a contrast to the clipped introduction delivered just a few minutes earlier by that senator, Mitch McConnell, who referenced Biden only in noting that the president had signed the bill to finally fix the aging bridge.
Jacquelyn Martin, AP file photo
Vice President Joe Biden, right, administers the Senate oath to incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., with McConnell's wife, former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, center, during a ceremonial re-enactment swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 6, 2015, in the Old Senate Chamber of Capitol Hill in Washington.
By temperament and manner, the two men — whose relationship in Washington has been scrutinized, analyzed and satirized for years — are decidedly mismatched. Biden is tactile, gregarious and gaffe prone; McConnell is tactical, often grim-faced and rarely utters an unscripted word.
But with the new days of divided government underway, the Biden-McConnell relationship will become more important.
McConnell’s experience in cutting deals and the political capital he retains among Republican members could leave him much freer to negotiate with the White House on thorny matters such as government spending and the debt ceiling than new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whose ranks have already issued hardline demands on the debt that the White House says are nonstarters.
Both Biden and McConnell see political imperatives in strategically cooperating. McConnell, who fell short of regaining the Senate majority last November, will have a far more advantageous political map in the 2024 election cycle and wants to demonstrate that Republicans can govern responsibly. Meanwhile, central to Biden’s case for reelection is promoting his policy accomplishments and selling a record of competent governing — punctured somewhat by recent discoveries of classified records at his former office and Delaware home.
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Carolyn Kaster - staff, AP
President Joe Biden boards Marine One at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Del., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023.
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Carolyn Kaster - staff, AP
President Joe Biden waves as he stands at the top of the stairs before boarding Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Biden is traveling to El Paso, Texas, and then on to Mexico City, Mexico.
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Andres Leighton - freelancer, FR171260 AP
El Paso police officers pat down and arrest two Venezuelan migrants at the camping site outside the Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso, Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. President Joe Biden arrived in Texas on Sunday for his first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office, stopping in El Paso after two years of hounding by Republicans who have hammered him as soft on border security while the number of migrants crossing spirals.
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Andrew Harnik - staff, AP
President Joe Biden is escorted by Col. Matthew Jones, 89th Wing Airlift Commander, right, as he walks to board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023, to travel to El Paso, Texas, and then on to Mexico City, Mexico. First lady Jill Biden, left, is traveling separately to Mexico City.
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Andrew Harnik - staff, AP
President Joe Biden shakes hands with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after Abbott handed him a letter about the border at El Paso International Airport in El Paso Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, second from left, and Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr., D-Texas, right, look on.
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Andrew Harnik - staff, AP
President Joe Biden exits Air Force One as he arrives at El Paso International Airport in El Paso Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. From left, Biden, Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr., D-Texas, and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.
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Andrew Harnik - staff, AP
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott hands President Joe Biden a letter that outlined laws that the governor said would make a great difference, if enforced, in addressing the "chaos" at the border, as Biden arrives at El Paso International Airport in El Paso Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, stands at right.
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Andres Leighton - freelancer, FR171260 AP
An El Paso police officer pats down a Venezuelan migrant after his arrest at the camping site outside the Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso, Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. President Joe Biden arrived in Texas on Sunday for his first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office, stopping in El Paso after two years of hounding by Republicans who have hammered him as soft on border security while the number of migrants crossing spirals.
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Andres Leighton - freelancer, FR171260 AP
El Paso police officers pat down and arrest two Venezuelan migrants at the camping site outside the Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso, Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. President Joe Biden arrived in Texas on Sunday for his first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office, stopping in El Paso after two years of hounding by Republicans who have hammered him as soft on border security while the number of migrants crossing spirals.
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AP file
Jan. 20, 2017: Biden's two terms as vice president to President Barack Obama end.
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AP file
Mid-2017-2019: Biden periodically uses an office at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank in Washington.
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AP file
Jan. 20, 2021: Biden is sworn in as president.
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AP file
Nov. 2, 2022: Biden's personal attorneys come across Obama-Biden administration documents in a locked closet while packing files as they prepare to close out Biden's office in the Penn Biden Center. They notify the National Archives.
Nov. 3, 2022: The National Archives takes possession of the documents.
Nov. 4, 2022: The National Archives informs the Justice Department about the documents.
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AP file
Nov. 8, 2022: Midterm elections.
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White House via AP, File
November-December 2022: Biden's lawyers search the president's homes in Wilmington, Delaware, and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, to see if there are other documents from his vice presidency.
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AP file
Nov. 9, 2022: The FBI begins an assessment of whether classified information has been mishandled.
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AP file
Nov. 14, 2022: Garland assigns U.S. attorney John Lausch to look into whether a special counsel should be appointed to investigate the matter.
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AP file
Jan. 5, 2023: Lausch advises Garland he believes that appointing a special counsel is warranted.
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AP file
Jan. 9, 2023: CBS News, followed by other news organizations, reveals the discovery of the documents at the Penn Biden Center. The White House acknowledges that "a small number" of Obama-Biden administration records, including some with classified markings, were found at the center. It makes no mention of the documents found in Wilmington.
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AP file
Jan. 10: 2023: Biden for the first time addresses the document issue. During a press conference in Mexico City, he says he was "surprised to learn that there were any documents" in the Penn Biden Center and doesn't know what's in them. He does not mention the documents found in Wilmington.
Jan. 11, 2023: Biden's lawyers complete their search of Biden's residences, find one additional classified document in the president's personal library in Wilmington. NBC News and other news organizations reveal a second batch of documents has been found at a location other than the Penn Wilson Center.
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AP file
Jan. 12: 2023: Biden's lawyer informs Lausch that an additional classified document has been found. Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, reveals publicly for the first time that documents were found in Biden's Wilmington garage and one document was found in an adjacent room. Garland announces that he has appointed Robert Hur, a former U.S. attorney in the Trump administration, to serve as special counsel.
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Jessica Christian, AP
Jan. 19, 2023: On a trip to tour California storm damage, President Joe Biden says there is "no there there" after the discovery of classified documents and official records at his home and former office. Biden says they "found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place." Biden says he is "fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly.”
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Carolyn Kaster, AP
Jan. 20: The FBI searches President Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware and locates six additional documents containing classified markings and also takes possession of some of his notes, the president's lawyer says. Authorities have complete access to the home and spend nearly 13 hours combing through handwritten notes, files, papers, binders, memorabilia, to-do lists and schedules.
Jan. 21: President Joe Biden’s lawyers publicly reveal the results of the Jan. 20 search.
“Look, I got elected by the people of Kentucky,” McConnell said in a radio interview Tuesday with Louisville’s 840 WHAS. “I don’t view my job, even though I’m the Republican leader of the Senate, as objecting to everything just because Joe Biden might sign the bill.”
When asked about McConnell after the Kentucky bridge visit, Biden pointed to their joint efforts in the Obama administration to ward off federal fiscal calamities.
“I’ve had a relationship with Mitch McConnell for years,” Biden said. “We’ve always been able to work together.”
McConnell’s acceptance of the White House invitation to attend the bridge event surprised even some of those close to him.
He was among those who greeted Biden on the tarmac at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Then McConnell joined Biden in the armored presidential limousine, known as the “beast,” where the two men talked foreign policy and how to keep the international coalition united on Ukraine. Having McConnell ride with the president was not planned in advance, according to an official familiar with the interaction, but it wasn’t a surprise, either.
Patrick Semansky, AP file photo
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. and President Joe Biden speak after Biden's arrival at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Jan. 4 in Hebron, Ky.
“On the one hand, it’s easy to overread it,” said Scott Jennings, a veteran Kentucky-based party strategist with close ties to the Republican leader. “McConnell had long said he would be more than happy to work with Biden on policy things that are within what he considers the 40-yard line in American politics, and building a bridge in Kentucky is right in the middle of that field.”
Jennings continued: “On the other hand, I do think there’s a message in that whole event, that there is a basic threshold of governing responsibility that people expect out of a political party, and I do think the Republicans sort of got judged as failing that threshold” at the end of the Donald Trump presidency and with some GOP Senate candidates last year.
Biden and McConnell have demonstrated in the past that they could capably govern when others couldn’t.
Their deal-making through a trio of financial agreements prevented what could have been major economic and political catastrophes. Those agreements temporarily extended the Bush tax cuts in 2010, lifted the debt limit in summer 2011, and in late 2012 avoided the “fiscal cliff” that would have hiked tax rates and enacted steep spending cuts, risking a recession.
“Obviously, I don’t always agree with him, but I do trust him implicitly,” McConnell said in a farewell tribute to Biden on the Senate floor in December 2016. “He doesn’t break his word. He doesn’t waste time telling me why I’m wrong.”
Biden also has found McConnell trustworthy. In a February 2011 speech at the McConnell Center in Louisville, Biden lavished the highest of praise for a congressional leader: “Mitch knows how to count better than anyone else I have ever known.”
Over the years, the interactions between the two men has turned, at times, deeply personal. McConnell was the sole Republican senator to attend the funeral of Beau Biden, the president’s elder son, who died from glioblastoma in 2015. The following year, an emotional Biden presided over the Senate as McConnell, then the majority leader, surprised him by leading the renaming of legislation to bolster cancer research at the National Institutes of Health in Beau Biden’s honor.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said of the two: “There is a personal relationship that — transcends isn’t the right word, but that is different from their philosophical leanings. And my experience has been that personal relationships count in this setting.”
