OAK LAWN, IL — Outgoing U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski admitted that he hasn't been paying that much attention to President Donald Trump's refusal to concede or his disputed tweets about a rigged election.
"It doesn't surprise me," Lipinski said after addressing his last Veterans Day ceremony as a sitting congressman in Oak Lawn. "I haven't been paying attention to what he is doing or saying."
Nor does Lipinski expect Trump not leaving the White House to become an issue.
"From what we've seen of Donald Trump the last four years he needs some sort of off ramp that somehow he's chosen to move on to something different," he said. "As long as he cooperates and doesn't in any way hurt [President-elect Biden's] incoming administration, I think everything is going to be fine."
Does he feel that widespread fraud took place with the election, as Trump has alleged?
"No. As others are saying, if he has evidence he should bring it forward. I haven't seen any evidence," Lipinski said. "Most [Republicans] are saying privately to let the loss play out. Republican elected officials don't want to be out there telling [Trump] to back off."
Lipinski did acknowledge that Biden was going to have his work cut out for him trying to unite embittered Democrats and Republicans in Congress, as well as a polarized country. Much of it would come down to Georgia's runoff elections for two senate seats in January, which requires a majority vote of 50 plus one.
"That's a good question," he said. "More than likely the Republicans will take control of those two senate races. It's going to make a huge different in terms of what is going to happen in the next two years."
Should the Republicans hold on to at least one of the senate seats, Lipinski hopes that Biden and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would be willing to sit down and come to an agreement on some legislation, maybe an infrastructure bill.
"Joe Biden is someone who's been willing to work together with Republicans to get things done," Lipinski said. "I'm hopeful that Republicans will give him that chance. It's not going to heal overnight no matter what Biden does to solve this, but he could take step in the right direction."
"It has been a number of years since there has been any real bipartisanship," he added. "On both sides of the aisle we're getting people who are more extreme."
What will become of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus that Lipinski was part of, where House members on both sides of the aisle tried to find common ground on key legislative issues.
"It's going to be very interesting to see if there are enough Democrats in there who are willing to say no at times to [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi]."
Whatever happens, Lipinski won't be there to witness it. He lost the Democratic primary to progressive newcomer Marie Newman, who will be sworn into Congress in January as the 3rd District house representative.
He doesn't have any plans to run for office, but isn't ruling anything out either. Lipinski is currently contributing a chapter to a book about Congress.
"Congress was intended to be a place where you come together and bring all these diverse ideas from across the nation," he said. "Then you're supposed to sit down, debate, deliberate and negotiate to come up a compromise and solutions. We don't do that anymore and it's extremely detrimental to the country."
"Exit" - Google News
November 13, 2020 at 03:25PM
https://ift.tt/36OcDqz
Trump Needs An Off-Ramp For Exit From White House: Lipinski - Patch.com
"Exit" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2zNkU0N
https://ift.tt/2YrnuUx
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Trump Needs An Off-Ramp For Exit From White House: Lipinski - Patch.com"
Post a Comment