The 13 House Republicans who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill are getting GOP blowback, threats

There was a lot of Democratic drama leading up to the House passing a bipartisan infrastructure package and sending it to President Biden's desk on Friday night. Now the most public disarray is on the Republican side of the aisle. Former President Donald Trump and some of his closest House allies have gone after the 13 House Republicans who voted for the bill, and after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) called them "traitors" and tweeted their phone numbers, the lawmakers started getting ugly calls.

Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday that his vote will help improve the "atrocious state of our infrastructure," but his office has received a "substantial amount of troubling phone calls" about his vote. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said he's received numerous death threats, and he shared one of them with CNN on Monday night. In the profanity-filled call, a man from South Carolina calls Upton a "traitor" and wishes death on him, his family, and his staff.

YouTube

Watch On

Trump talked about making an infrastructure deal so much during his term that "infrastructure week" became a running joke. But at a private event Monday night hosted by the House GOP campaign arm, he said the 13 Republicans who "voted for Biden's infrastructure plan" should be "ashamed of themselves" for "helping the Democrats," The Washington Post reports. His former aides and current allies have used harsher language and called for the 13 House members to be stripped of their committee assignments and voted out of office next year.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"House Republican leaders have done nothing to come to aid of the 13 who voted for the bill, remaining silent even as these members publicly disclose the harassment they have faced," the Post adds. Meanwhile, "Senate Republicans have largely avoided cannibalizing 19 of their colleagues who voted in favor of the bipartisan infrastructure bill in August." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he's "delighted" the bill is heading to Biden's desk.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has not publicly commented on the calls to punish his 13 caucus members who voted for the infrastructure deal. But one of the 13, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), said his silence is loud enough. "A party with leaders like Kevin McCarthy, that cannot stand up to the insanity from people like Greene, Gaetz, Gosar, etc, is going to have a hard time standing up to countries like China," he tweeted.