McConnell slams Biden for lack of 'unity' in first 100 days, accuses him of pushing 'catnip' for liberals instead

• Mitch McConnell on Wednesday criticized President Joe Biden's first 100 days in office.

• "It's like the most radical Washington Democrats have been handed the keys," he said.

• McConnell expressed opposition to Biden's infrastructure proposal and immigration policies.

• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday expressed displeasure with President Joe Biden's first 100 days in office, accusing his former Senate colleague of failing to unify the country after a turbulent 2020.

McConnell, who lost control of the Senate after the dual victories of Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the Georgia runoff elections in January, criticized the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill that was signed into law, along with Biden's decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline project and the president's support of the sweeping election reform bill known as H.R. 1.

"President Biden pledged he would be 'a president for all Americans' with plans to repair, restore and heal, but the first hundred days have left much to be desired," he said on the Senate floor. "Over a few short months, the Biden administration seems to have given up on selling actual unity in favor of catnip for their liberal base, covered with a hefty coat of false advertising."

McConnell's comments come as Biden on Wednesday released a $1.8 trillion plan that would offer universal pre-K and two years of free community college.

The Kentucky Republican indicated that Democrats were attempting to pass their largest legislative proposals before ceding control of the House or Senate to the GOP after the 2022 midterm elections.

"Behind President Biden's familiar face, it's like the most radical Washington Democrats have been handed the keys, and they're trying to speed as far left as they can possibly go before American voters ask for their car back," McConnell said.

McConnell also condemned Biden's handling of the increase in unaccompanied minors seeking to gain entry into the country from the US-Mexico border, along with his reversal of former President Donald Trump's asylum policy that required asylum applicants to remain outside the US while their cases were processed.

"Democrats have decidedly avoided taking ownership of the results of their own campaign rhetoric on immigration," he said. "Reckless mixed messaging has come home to roost in the form of a humanitarian and security crisis on our southern border."

Republicans have pledged to use the border surge against the Democrats as a campaign issue next year.

"The White House's foremost concern seems to have been to avoid calling this what it is: a crisis," McConnell said.

Read more: This millennial GOP congressman voted to impeach Trump. Now he's trying to save his party from going off a cliff.

McConnell also shared his opposition to Biden's proposed $2 trillion infrastructure bill, blasting it as "another multitrillion-dollar smorgasbord of liberal social engineering."

"It's being sold as a serious effort to rebuild our nation's infrastructure," he said. "It's a pretty brazen misdirection. At both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, Democrats have chosen to live in an alternate universe where both the campaign promises they made and the mandate the American people delivered were completely different than what happened right here on planet Earth."

As Biden is set to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, McConnell indicated that Biden could alter the trajectory of his presidency, despite the president receiving positive job approval ratings across the board since entering office.

"It's not too late," McConnell said. "This White House can shake off its daydreams of a sweeping socialist legacy that will never happen in the United States of America."

He added: "They can recommit to solving our nation's actual problems. To fostering consensus instead of deepening our divides. That is what the American people want and deserve."

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