The leaders of the Democrats and Republicans in the US Senate want to respond to the call by new president Joe Biden to start working together again.
Democrat Chuck Schumer took over from Republican Mitch McConnell as majority leader in the Senate on Wednesday.
“We have no choice”, said Schumer. “The challenges we face are great. The division in the country is real.” Both sides currently have 50 seats in the Senate. The decision is taken by Vice President Kamala Harris, who is formally President of the Senate.
Schumer promised that the Senate would tackle the corona epidemic, economic crisis and inequality in the United States. “Not with half-hearted solutions, but with courage and courage.”
In turn, outgoing majority leader Mitch McConnell said the country deserves that the two parties “have a common ground for the sake of both.” McConnell also said that it was important that political dialogue in the US is conducted respectfully. McConnell said he hoped for a partnership “to live up to voters’ confidence”.
In his election campaign and since Biden has emphasized his will to reunite polarized America. In his inauguration speech Biden, therefore, called for unity and reconciliation. In the years under former President Donald Trump, Democrats and Republicans have come to be diametrically opposed.
Trump’s actions, most notably spreading doubt about the legitimacy of the election results that culminated in the Capitol’s storming by angry Trump supporters early this month, has split the Republican party.
McConnell has long been regarded as one of Trump’s most influential allies. However, after the attack on the Capitol, it came to a rift between the two. McConnell and President are old acquaintances from the Senate, where Biden has served for more than three decades.