Former Obama aide says Biden can’t ‘shame’ McConnell into working with him

A former Obama administration official criticized former Vice President Joe Biden’s plan to “shame” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) into working with him if he wins the White House next year.

“Maybe you can shame people,” Alyssa Mastromonaco, who worked as White House deputy chief of staff for operations from 2011 to 2014, said on Twitter. “You can’t shame McConnell. It would be dope to find a path to greater bipartisanship but this isn’t that path.”

maybe you can shame people. you can’t shame McConnell. it would be dope to find a path to greater bipartisanship but this isn’t that path. https://t.co/l2YNj0H7i0

— alyssa “activist witches 2020” mastromonaco (@AlyssaMastro44) June 17, 2019

Mastromonaco’s comments came after Biden’s remarks during a forum in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Poor People’s Campaign.

Asked by MSNBC’s Joy Reid how he planned to get policies past McConnell, Biden said it’s possible to “shame people to do things the right way.”

In DC, @JoyReid asks @JoeBiden how he’ll get his agenda past Mitch McConnell.

“I know you’re one of the ones who thinks it’s naive to say we have to work together,” Biden tells her, before pitching his powers of persuasion.

“You can shame people to do things the right way.”

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) June 17, 2019

Biden has regularly called for unity and working across the aisle since launching his White House bid earlier this year. At his official campaign launch last month, the longtime politician acknowledged that some in the Democratic Party believe that the strategy isn’t practical.

{mosads}“Some of these same people are saying, ‘You know, Biden just doesn’t get it. You can’t work with Republicans anymore. That’s not the way it works anymore,'” he said onstage in Philadelphia. “Well, folks, I’m going to say something outrageous. I know how to make government work. I’ve worked across the aisle to reach consensus to make government work in the past.”

He added that he knows how to “go toe-to-toe with the GOP, but it doesn’t have to be and it can’t be that way on every single issue.”

Biden consistently leads the field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates in nationwide polling. A YouGov survey released Sunday found that he holds a double-digit lead over the rest of the field in early voting states, while a Hill-HarrisX poll released Monday found he has a 22 percentage point lead over his closest competitor, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).