Biden returns to a deteriorating Wisconsin bridge for an election-year pitch on policy achievements

SUPERIOR, Wis. — President Joe Biden returned to the deteriorating John A. Blatnik Memorial Bridge on Thursday to make the case that his administration is following through on its pledge to fix the critical link between the port cities of Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota. With Biden trying to persuade voters to reward him for his achievements, the Democrat’s latest pitch came in a critical swing state that is part of the “blue wall” of states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — where he defeated Republican President Donald Trump in 2020. Until today.” Biden said at Superior’s Earth Rider Brewery after visiting with iron workers and local officials at the bridge. He said Biden “worked with Stauber’s colleagues and got it done without him.” Stauber defended his role, saying in a statement that the Biden administration did not select Minnesota’s first application for bridge money, “which is why my advocacy was necessary.” While in Superior, Biden noted that some Republicans had voted for the infrastructure legislation but that the “vast majority voted against it.” “But you know what? “Because we’re building projects everywhere, no matter whether they voted for it or not.” It was Biden’s eighth trip to Wisconsin as president and his second to Superior, a city of 27,000 people along the shores of Lake Superior just across the border from Minnesota.