In an interview with The Washington Post, Congressman Don Young said that his vote for the massive infrastructure bill drew the ire of former President Donald Trump, but it’s not concerning him.
“Rep. Don Young knew the call would not end well, as the Alaska Republican forcefully rejected Donald Trump’s plea to oppose the more than $1 trillion infrastructure legislation,” the Wa-Po reported.
“How did the former president take the news?” the newspaper asked.
“Not well,” Young recalled, but there wasn’t any shouting. “No, no, no, no, no.”
“Young, 88, the longest-serving member of Congress, thought about all the contradictions he saw in Trump, particularly the chaotic style that made him a politically toxic figure.
“’I think his policy is just so good,” Young said during a 45-minute interview this week. “Just shut up — that’s all he has to do. He’s not going to. I know that.”
Of all the Republicans Trump has targeted in the past few months, none have quite the carefree attitude of Young. His political sin was voting Nov. 5 for the massive infrastructure package over Trump’s objection, along with his quick embrace of the 2020 election results that showed Joe Biden’s victory.
The newspaper continued, detailing all the foes that Young has beat in his long career: the FBI, both congressional ethics committees, a case of Covid-19, “and every political challenger since his 1972 loss to a congressman who was probably dead at the time.”
He has gone from being a powerful chairman of two committees to an outsider who sits — literally every day Congress is in session — on the very back bench of the House chamber, the paper wrote.
The newspaper said that Young is not worried about being aligned with President Joe Biden, in a state that is still Donald Trump country.
“He prominently hung a photo of Biden, in the Oval Office next to Young and Alaska’s Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, for the signing ceremony of a law that helped revive Alaska’s tourism industry. The photo of Biden joins those with nine other presidents Young served with along a wall in his office,” the Wa-Po reported.
Read The Washington Post story, which is behind a paywall, at this link.
