Biden pleads for party unity as Democrats fight over $ 3.5 million spending bill

President Biden on Saturday pleaded with his fractured party to come together and pass its multibillion-dollar spending bills – assuring Democrats that his costly agenda “will win the 21st century.”

“My message is simple: we must stay together and bound by the values ​​we stand for as a party,” Biden said in a three-minute pre-recorded speech released Saturday at the Democratic National Committee’s fall meeting.

“Because here’s the deal: We won 2020 as a unified party,” Biden said. “And we look to 2022, as we do, we have to stand united. “

Biden did not name Senate holdouts Joe Manchin (DW.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona), whose resistance blocked his $ 3.5 trillion social spending program – or Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Who lambasted the two in a heated press conference this week that exposed Democrats’ divisions.

But he promised party supporters that his spending plans, if passed, would be praised in the future – though some Democrats fear his high price tag and strong government expansion could cost them their majority in Congress during the elections. midterm elections next year.

“If we deliver today across the board,” Biden vowed, “50 years from now people will look back and say that was the period, this was the moment, America won the 21st century.”