There aren’t many areas where Democrat Dick Durbin thinks he’ll agree with Donald Trump. But rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure is one of them:
“If he wishes to move forward on infrastructure, for example, I hope we can find a way to do it. We desperately need it as a nation. He said as much. I hope he can convince Republicans in Congress as well.”
The senior Illinois U.S. Senator says he has serious doubts about many of Trump’s picks for cabinet secretaries, including Rick Perry for the Department of Energy and Betsy DeVos for the Department of Education.
Durbin says he and his fellow Democrats will fight Trump and congressional Republicans tooth and nail on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, even though Republicans appear to have the votes to do it without help from Democrats.
Meanwhile, Durbin says he will miss having a fellow Illinoisan in the White House.
He says having Barack Obama and many of his staff members hailing from the state made it much easier to advocate for issues important to him and his constituents:
“Now, from a political point of view, I’m gonna miss having an Illinois president. It was from Springfield railroad relocation all the way up to issues of Chicago, you could find somebody in the administration of Barack Obama who knew what you were talking about.”
Durbin says he and his wife Loretta will also miss having the Obamas as friends in Washington, D.C.
