Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has moved to defend President-elect Joe Biden's campaign manager and incoming deputy chief of staff, Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, after she called Republicans "a bunch of f***ers".
"People who stood by Donald Trump for the last four years are now claiming to be offended that a Democratic campaign manager used a curse word? I don't think so", Clinton tweeted on Thursday.
The remarks came a day after O'Malley Dillon in an interview with the magazine Glamour provided an unflattering characterisation of the GOP lawmakers that Biden promised to cooperate with during his upcoming presidency.
"The president-elect was able to connect with people over this sense of unity. In the primary, people would mock him, like, 'You think you can work with Republicans?' I'm not saying they're not a bunch of f***ers. [Republican Senate leader] Mitch McConnell is terrible. But this sense that you couldn't wish for that, you couldn't wish for this bipartisan ideal? [Biden] rejected that", she said.
The former vice president, she added, had "set out with this idea that unity was possible, that together we are stronger, that we, as a country, need healing, and our politics needs that too".
O'Malley Dillon stressed that Americans would like to see their leaders "moving in a path forward", and expressed hope that "this negative, polarised electorate that politics has created" was something that "we can break down".
Republicans immediately took aim at the incoming deputy chief of staff, and even some advisers close to Biden expressed frustration over her remarks, according to Axios.
Some donors reportedly went further by saying that the incoming deputy chief of staff should apologise to both the president-elect and congressional Republicans.
The developments were preceded by Biden delivering remarks in Delaware in celebration of his election victory, shortly after Monday's Electoral College vote, in which he secured 306 voted to Republican rival Donald Trump's 232. The votes are due to be certified by the US Congress on 6 January.
"In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed. Now it's time to turn the page, as we've done throughout our history – to unite, to heal", Biden pointed out.
President Trump, for his part, continues to refuse to concede the election, accusing Democrats of robbing him of victory using faulty voting machines, mass mail-in ballot dumps, and other types of "voter fraud".
