Biden hails clean energy investments, swipes at ‘MAGA’ Republicans in Minnesota

President Joe Biden visited the Cummins alternative power manufacturing center in Fridley, Minnesota on Monday as part of his early 2024 reelection campaign, where he praised his administration’s investment in new, clean energy projects, and emphasized the importance of bringing the supply chain back to America with the help of the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. Biden’s speech closely resembled those he recently delivered in Maryland, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

While pointing out how considerable government resources enable new industries to flourish, Biden mentioned that Federal investment attracts private investment, creating jobs, industries and demonstrates the nation’s collective role in progress. “When you build it the other way, everyone does well, and the wealthy do very well as well.”

He also criticized “MAGA” Republicans for refusing to pay America’s bills. “They said they’re not going to pay the bill which would, for the first time, America would default on its debt, which would throw us not only into recession, but would be a disaster for the economy. Basically, what we know so far is their plans would explode the deficit.”

Biden and the first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and her husband Doug Emhoff, will travel to 20 states to showcase how the President’s Investing in America agenda is impacting communities across the country. White House officials point out that Biden’s economic packages’ incentives have led to $2 billion in investments in Minnesota businesses. These incentives are helping to unleash a manufacturing and innovation boom, building a clean energy economy, and creating good-paying jobs across the country, including Fridley.

The president’s visit coincides with Cummins’ announcement to allocate $1 billion in new investments for its manufacturing facilities in Indiana, North Carolina, and New York, where it will manufacture low-to-zero emission engines to decarbonize the nation’s truck fleets.

Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August 2022, and only two months later, Cummins announced that it would manufacture new equipment for the first time at the Fridley facility in Minnesota.

Watch Biden’s speech in full below.