The incoming White House deputy chief of staff, Jen O’Malley Dillon, called for unity and compromise in politics while labeling Republicans “a bunch of f***ers” in a Wednesday interview with Glamour magazine.
O’Malley Dillon was campaign manager for Texas progressive Beto O’Rourke in the Democratic primaries, before joining the Biden team as campaign manager in March. In the Glamour interview, O’Malley Dillon said Biden was “able to connect” with voters over a “sense of unity.”
“In the primary, people would mock him, like, ‘You think you can work with Republicans?’ I’m not saying they’re not a bunch of f***ers. Mitch McConnell is terrible. But this sense that you couldn’t wish for that, you couldn’t wish for this bipartisan ideal? He rejected that,” O’Malley Dillon said. “From start to finish, he set out with this idea that unity was possible, that together we are stronger, that we, as a country, need healing, and our politics needs that too.”
O’Malley Dillon also stated that in politics “compromise is a good thing,” and that compromise “feels to me like the heart of relationships and love and success across the board.”
The comments come amid negotiations in Congress over a new coronavirus relief package. Negotiations have been deadlocked since the summer, and Majority Leader McConnell said on Tuesday that the Senate would not recess for Christmas until a deal is reached.