Biden hopes infrastructure can bridge partisan divide

President Joe Biden is hoping that launching an effort to build roads and bridges can help to unite Democrats and Republicans in a time of sharp partisan divisions.

Biden met with lawmakers from both parties at the White House to discuss infrastructure on Thursday, even as the Senate is holding impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump where partisan divisions are on full display.

“I’ve been around long enough," Biden said, "that infrastructure wasn’t a Republican or a Democratic issue.”

The president specifically mentioned the potential for improvement projects in the states of the senators attending the meeting, signaling that lawmakers might be willing to cooperate in order to make their voters' lives better.

Biden highlighted the need for repairs to “a lot of bridges in West Virginia.” Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, was among those in attendance.

The president also referenced Route 9 in his home state of Delaware, which he shares with Democratic Sen. Tom Carper, the committee chairman, who was also in the Oval Office meeting Thursday and had discussed these issues with Biden last week.

Also at the meeting were Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg virtually, Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland.

Biden said there are “a number of things out there that the American people are looking for us to step up" and do. During the presidential campaign, Biden committed to deploying $2 trillion on infrastructure and clean energy investments over four years.

His campaign pledged that millions of jobs would flow from repairing roads, building electric vehicle charging stations,...