Media top headlines January 20
In media news today, Biden appears to lose his cool after a reporter’s question on divisiveness, NPR stands by mask report as three SCOTUS justices refute its claims, and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow says Biden used his long press conference to show Putin he has ‘stamina.’
President Biden's Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg pushed back against MSNBC's Joy Reid's assertion that the infrastructure bill mostly benefited White guys and excluded other groups on MSNBC's the "ReidOut" Thursday.
MSNBC host Joy Reid asked, "Do you think it was a mistake looking back, because you know that the infrastructure bill that was passed was cleaved apart from what's now being called Build Back Better. And in a sense, it's a bill that's like a White guy employment act, right?"
Build Back Better "Bill" on Capitol Hill on November 18, 2021. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Care In Action)
"There's going to be a lot of working-class men that are going to get employed by that bill, but that's the very cohort that is much more likely to reward Republicans for that. That's who they vote for. Most, you know, working-class White guys vote Republican," she continued. "Do you think it was a mistake to split those bills?"
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"No, and I want to challenge the idea that this is a bill that only benefits one part of the population," Buttigieg said.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (Al Drago/Bloomberg)
"I get where you're coming from and what you're saying. But … you look at something like the investment in transit – you know it's … commuters of color who are most likely to depend on that. You look at the jobs we're going to create. And yeah, they have been traditionally White and male, but it doesn't have to stay that way."
Reid said that "all the stuff for the women, for you know, for moms, for people who need child care, for people of color, … all the stuff that helps families and women … all … got dropped."
President Biden speaks about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in the White House, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
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Buttigieg also pushed back against Reid's generalizations, saying that child care means a lot to many people.
"I mean, I think we shouldn't assume that it's only something that means something to one part of the population. Child care means an awful lot to me. I'm a guy – but it's going to mean a lot to me as a parent, which is why we continue to be committed to lowering the cost of child care," he responded. "I'm proud of what we got done in this transportation infrastructure bill."
Biden signed the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill into law in November, which included investments in transportation, broadband, and utilities.