Biden: 'No party should have too much power'
Former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenHillicon Valley: Biden calls on Facebook to change political speech rules | Dems demand hearings after Georgia election chaos | Microsoft stops selling facial recognition tech to police Trump finalizing executive order calling on police to use ‘force with compassion’ The Hill’s Campaign Report: Biden campaign goes on offensive against Facebook MORE said he’s concerned about what would happen if Republicans get “clobbered” in next year’s election, suggesting such an outcome would be harmful to bipartisanship.
“I’m really worried that no party should have too much power,” Biden told reporters Friday during his bus tour in Iowa. “You need a countervailing force.”
The comments, reported by BuzzFeed News, come as Biden remains one of the sole 2020 candidates to repeatedly tout efforts to work with Republicans.
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“There’s an awful lot of really good Republicans out there,” he said in August at a Massachusetts fundraiser. “I get in trouble for saying that with Democrats, but the truth of the matter is, every time we ever got in trouble with our administration, remember who got sent up to Capitol Hill to fix it? Me. Because they know I respect the other team.”
Such comments have in the past infuriated progressive activists, who are in search of a candidate who can effectively fight against Trump and the GOP’s agenda and argue that the former vice president is naïve to suggest Republicans on Capitol Hill are interested in bipartisanship.
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Biden gained a reputation for bipartisanship during his time in the Obama administration. The former vice president leveraged his decades serving in the Senate to help become a chief negotiator on Capitol Hill and met often with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote GOP senator to try to reverse requirement that Pentagon remove Confederate names from bases No, ‘blue states’ do not bail out ‘red states’ MORE (R-Ky.), now one of the 2020 primary field’s top targets.