Pro-infrastructure Republicans fire back amid attacks from Trump GOP: 'angry as hell'
Fox News
The wrath of the Trump wing of the Republican Party came down on Republicans who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, including cutting comments from Trump himself.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., listens during a news conference outside the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 30, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., talks with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, during a forum in Washington on June 29, 2021. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
But those Republicans, including Reps. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Don Bacon, R-Neb., are firing back, arguing that their votes made Democrats' massive social spending bill less likely to pass. They say this is because progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., can no longer hold the infrastructure bill hostage, so moderate Democrats will be free to tank the reconciliation spending bill.
"We significantly took away the leverage from the socialist ‘Squad,’" on the reconciliation spending bill, Malliotakis said on Fox News Tuesday. "It is why AOC and the others voted against it."