Biden says he will trust Kevin McCarthy and GOP on infrastructure deal if he ‘looks me in the eyes and gives me his word’

Joe Biden has said he would trust Kevin McCarthy and other Republicans over an infrastructure deal, if he “looks me in the eye and give me his word”. 

Speaking after he met with Mr McCarthy and Mitch McConnell, the GOP leader in the Senate to discuss a proposed infrastructure deal, Mr Biden was asked how he could trust someone who had voted not to recognise the election.

“You were trying to make a deal today in a room with Kevin McCarthy, where what he was doing before he came up here was expelling Liz Cheney from his leadership group for saying things like, the election is over, as she said last night on the House floor,” said interviewer Lawrence O’Donnell. 

“And Kevin McCarthy is the same person who supported Liz Cheney just weeks ago.”

He added: “How can you accept whatever someone like Kevin McCarthy says today as something that you’re actually going to legislate a few weeks from now or months from now?”

Mr Biden said he thought it was possible to “have a deal”.

“If a man looks me in the eye, gives me his word that something’s going to happen, I take it unless he breaks it,” he said. 

“He may have broken his word to somebody else, but to me, has he made that deal – we’re nowhere near having made a deal.”