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House and Senate Republicans “can’t blame the Democrats for not getting something done” once US President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., said Tuesday, emphasizing the party’s trifecta hold on US government as a competitive — but tenuous — advantage.
“Every day that we go past January 20 [and] we’re not getting stuff done, we don’t need to look at anybody else other than ourselves,” Hern told Semafor’s Elana Schor at a Principals Live event on Tuesday in Washington, DC.
A staunch Trump supporter, Hern stressed the need to get the president-elect’s agenda through Congress as soon as possible, and in as few bills as possible. That will require more bipartisanship than some observers might expect, Hern said.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers reach across the aisle “every single day,” he said, and while Republicans hold control of the House, White House, and Senate, razor thin margins mean that pushing through legislation may still require Democratic backing: “You can’t be demonizing one another and at the same time asking for support.”
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Asked about a bill recently introduced by certain House Republicans that would authorize Trump to enter into negotiations with Denmark over Greenland, Hern left the door open to that possibility.
“I’ve always said that once the bill hits the floor, once we see the language, we’ll go from there,” he said.
“We tried the other way, trying to do it through diplomacy, and that didn’t work either, so we have to look at this,” Hern added, in a nod to Trump’s recent refusal to rule out taking control of the territory by force.
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- With several politically sensitive tax fights still unresolved, some Republican lawmakers think it will take months to agree a final bill, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reported: “It’s just incredibly complicated, and there are trade offs,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said.