Things have been rocky between Republicans and Democrats during Trump's first two years in office, and matters are expected to get even more heated as a new House regroups with a Democrat majority. However, Republican representative Francis Rooney, in a town hall meeting on Thursday, commented that things won’t be as divisive.
Having an optimistic outlook on what the future holds, Rooney says that when “emotional issues like border security” are put behind them along with the partial shutdown of the federal government, that the incoming Democrat majority and President Trump will learn to work together in order to bring about beneficial change.
Rooney does believe that things are “not off to a good start,” but he does admit that Democrats “got pretty close early in Trump’s term, talking about area where we could agree,” and he is hopeful that both sides of the aisle willl return to some of those moments.
Speaking on the midterm election, which many argued would see Republicans overwhelmed by a "blue wave," Rooney commented that early on he “thought that we were going to lose the House.” In turn, he worked on “identifying the key Democrats that we needed to work with to advance banning offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf and to get more money for the Everglades. It will require working with some new people; I’m going to see them here and take my charts around and take my pictures of the Everglades structures. I want them to know to know more about C-43 than the (Army) Corps of Engineers.”
Rooney also commented on Senator Mitt Romney’s recent op-ed, which criticized the Trump administration. Both Trump and Romney have shared political blows before, and Rooney echoed in Romney’s remarks about the President’s behavior.
Explaining himself, Rooney said that he sees where Romney is coming from when it comes to “some of the comments and the stridency and some of the things that have taken place. As he said correctly, President Trump has done a lot of good stuff but there are behavioral things that many people find unsettling. I’ve probably been more willing to overlook them because of the things he has done for Southwest Florida.”
