President Donald Trump needs to be specific on his plans for improving America's infrastructure, House Deputy Majority Whip Dan Kildee said Tuesday while discussing the upcoming State of the Union address.
"I have my big differences with the president, no doubt about that," the Michigan Democrat said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "But I think this is a moment where the president should be given the opportunity to rise again if he can and articulate a vision that's unifying."
Kildee said he was disappointed with Trump's last speech, when he did not address infrastructure with much specificity.
"I'm going to give the president the benefit of the doubt," he said."I hope he rises above what I think has been a pretty partisan and I think very narrow debate so far."
Kildee added that there is a great deal of legitimate criticism of Trump, including with Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's comments before Trump's State of the Union Address, but he's willing to hear him out.
"I'm just hopeful, begging the president to get real and get specific when it comes to how we are going to rebuild our national infrastructure," said Kildee. "If he does that I'll pat him on the back."
He also said he wishes his constituents would learn to work well together, on both sides of the aisle, "and not pay so much attention to every tweet, every utterance of the president of the United States. We're a co-equal branch of this government."