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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said that he is "totally confident" that President Joe Biden will sign the bipartisan infrastructure deal that would invest nearly $1 trillion in the nation's infrastructure that he and other Republican senators brokered with the White House and Democrats.
The comment comes a day after GOP senators were blindsided by Biden stating that the infrastructure investment must move in tandem with a larger Democratic package. On Saturday, Biden walked back those comments, saying that he "created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent."
"I do trust the president," Romney said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. "I do take the president at his word."
"I certainly can understand why not only myself but a lot of my colleagues were very concerned about what the president was saying. ... But I think the waters have been calmed by what he said on Saturday," Romney said. Romney is one of 10 key bipartisan senators who brokered the deal and whose support would allow it to pass the Senate without being filibustered.
GOP Sen. Mitt Romney says he believes there are enough Republican votes to support the negotiated, standalone, bipartisan infrastructure deal and that he takes Pres. Biden "at his word."
— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) June 27, 2021
"Republicans are going to support true infrastructure that doesn't raise taxes." #CNNSOTUpic.twitter.com/RdPZGV4LDt
"Mitt Romney's never broken his word to me," Biden said in his Saturday remarks. Of the bipartisan group of lawmakers, he said, "I don't agree with them on a lot of things, but I trust them when they say, 'This is a deal, we'll stick to the deal.'"
"As he indicated, I don't agree with him on a lot of policy fronts," Romney responded on the CNN program, "but do I take him at his word and do I think he's a man of honor? Absolutely."
Romney said that he had called the White House and officials reached out to the bipartisan senators to smooth things over. He also stated that he believes the plan still has enough support to pass the Senate.
Romney affirmed that he supports the bipartisan infrastructure bill, referring to it as "true infrastructure" and praising that it doesn't raise taxes. He made clear that he would not support a "human infrastructure" plan which would include child care or climate change funding.
