Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized President Joe Biden for several executive orders signed on the new administration's first day.
McConnell said the president was wrong in revoking a key permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, and removing a general counsel appointed to the National Labor Relations Board by former President Donald Trump, per Fox News.
"On the Biden administration's very first day, it took several big steps in the wrong direction," McConnell said Thursday from the Senate floor.
Later, McConnell said, "It's still early. There is plenty of time for President Biden to remember that he does not owe his election to the far left."
Many Republicans and Conservatives have been against the Paris agreement and for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Trump pulled out of the Paris accord, an international pact joined by nearly 200 nations with the intent of lowering greenhouse gas emissions and reversing the human impact on climate change. The former president believed the terms were unfair to the U.S.
Republicans say the agreement will impact manufacturing jobs adversely and hold the U.S. to an environmental standard not met by China or India.
McConnell and other GOP Congressional members believe Biden's decision to kill the Keystone XL Pipeline will negatively impact the oil and gas industry, especially the sector's employment.
The 1,200-mile pipeline has angered environmentalists and Native American tribes because it draws oil from tar sands and crosses tribal territory.
Biden also fired Peter Robb, the Trump-appointed general counsel for the NLRB, after Robb refused a request from the new administration to resign.
McConnell reminded his former Senate colleague Biden and the chamber's slim Democrat majority, Americans voted to keep a 50-50 party split in the Senate. The makeup likely means Republicans intend to challenge policies with which they disagree.
"If and when our Democratic friends depart from common sense, when they retreat from common ground, when their proposals would harm the common good," McConnell said, "then we'll use the power the American people have given us to push for what is right."
McConnell also urged the opposition to retain the filibuster, which means Democrats would need at least 10 Republican votes to get most legislation passed. That would be difficult with liberal agendas.
"The president can and should refocus his administration on creating good-paying American jobs, not sacrificing our people's livelihoods to liberal symbolism," McConnell said.
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