Trump calls McConnell an ‘Old Crow’ as he complains about Biden success in passing infrastructure bill

Former president lashes out at Senate minority leader after Republicans helped get bill through Congress

Donald Trump has once again hit out at Mitch McConnell and other Republicans who supported Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill in Congress last week, referring to the Senate minority leader as “that Old Crow”.

In a statement released on Tuesday night, the former US president accused Mr McConnell of getting 19 Republican senators, including himself, to vote for Mr Biden’s $1 trillion bill — after supposedly failing to support infrastructure proposals during the Trump era. In the House of Representatives, 13 Republicans backed the bill.

In Washington DC and beyond, “infrastructure week” became a running joke as Mr Trump’s administration repeatedly announced a focus on infrastructure plans but then failed to follow through on them — despite campaigning on the topic in 2016.

The former president wrote: “Why is it that Old Crow Mitch McConnell voted for a terrible Democrat Socialist Infrastructure Plan, and induced others in his Party to do likewise, when he was incapable of getting a great Infrastructure Plan wanting to be put forward by me and the Republican Party?”

He appeared to be referring to a $1 trillion infrastructure bill proposed on his 2016 campaign, as well as a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan that ran out of time before his Republican Party lost control of the House following the 2018 midterms.

“He continuously said he couldn’t get it passed, just like I had to go around him to get the very popular Southern Border Wall built,” Mr Trump continued, referring to his decision in 2019 to fund construction of the border wall by declaring a national emergency.

Mr Trump added that, “All of the infrastructure money, $2 Trillion, would have gone into real infrastructure (roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, etc.),” in apparent reference to plans that also failed in his final few months as US president.

He said on Sunday that “Republicans who voted for Democrat longevity should be ashamed of themselves” for supporting the bipartisan bill, which was not spending on “real infrastructure”, according to Mr Trump.

The bill passed last week contains $40bn (£29.6bn) for bridges, $110bn (£81.4bn) for highways, and $39bn (£28.8) for public transport — in addition to billions of funding for water supplies, electricity and broadband.