A Biden adviser, who requested anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking, emphasized to NBC News he isn’t giving up on working with Republicans where possible, citing the infrastructure law and U.S.-China competition package as examples.

The adviser said Biden’s new message is based on his view that most of the party has taken a sharp turn to the hard right, evoking Sen. Rick Scott’s agenda as well as party elites who are waging culture wars against Disney, seeking to ban books and attempting to outlaw abortion. The adviser added that Democrats will argue the GOP is the party of Scott, R-Fla., Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla…

Coons said the president is “simply observing reality.”

“Sadly, the political reality is that more and more Republicans at the state level and federal level are under the thrall of the former president and his views and positions. And I think that that may make compromise and consensus more and more difficult,” he said.