On Wednesday, The New York Timesreported that the 13 House Republicans who bucked party leadership to approve the bipartisan infrastructure bill are receiving a torrent of abuse and hate from GOP voters.
"One caller instructed Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois to slit his wrists and 'rot in hell.' Another hoped Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska would slip and fall down a staircase. The office of Representative Nicole Malliotakis of New York has been inundated with angry messages tagging her as a 'traitor,'" reported Catie Edmondson.
The Times notes that the rage is strange to see when it comes to a bipartisan infrastructure bill, but the paper argues that it "is a natural outgrowth of the slash-and-burn politics of former President Donald J. Trump, who savaged those in his party who backed the infrastructure bill as 'RINOs' — Republicans in name only — who should be 'ashamed of themselves.'"
This report comes after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) came under fire for tweeting out the phone numbers of the 13 representatives, and after another pro-infrastructure Republican, Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, received an expletive-ridden hate call from a person wishing death upon him.
Although more than a dozen Senate Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), voted for the infrastructure bill, House leadership led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) aggressively whipped Republicans against the measure, in part to try to collapse momentum for the larger, social spending package being negotiated in tandem.
The infrastructure bill provides over a trillion dollars in funding for roads, bridges, electric vehicle chargers, climate preparedness, and clean water. President Joe Biden is scheduled to sign it into law next Monday.