As the case count and death toll from the Coronavirus pandemic continue to climb sharply in the U.S., President Donald Trump is still focused on lashing out against his opponents. This Monday morning, he took to Twitter with an angry message about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who he derided for supposedly adding irrelevant, “bad” provisions into the most recent Coronavirus relief funding bill. In fact, Republicans including Trump have alternated between outright lies about Democratic policy additions and willful ignorance about the need for the policies.
Trump tweeted:
‘Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats delayed the Workers Help/Stimulus Bill by over a week, trying to add real “junk” into the Bill. Got some bad things, having nothing to do with those affected by the Virus, included. Republicans need their votes until we WIN BACK THE HOUSE IN 2020!’
Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats delayed the Workers Help/Stimulus Bill by over a week, trying to add real “junk” into the Bill. Got some bad things, having nothing to do with those affected by the Virus, included. Republicans need their votes until we WIN BACK THE HOUSE IN 2020!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2020
When Americans woke up this Monday to yet another week of Coronavirus-related turmoil, this angry tweet was the president’s message. It’s a lie that Democrats blindly held up the relief bill — they simply participated in the negotiating process with Trump’s own administration, and the Democratic majority House passed the bill within two days of the Senate.
Trump and his allies have previously claimed that Democrats included the whole Green New Deal in the relief funding, or at least tried to — but that’s a lie, plain and simple. A provision demanding that financially supported airlines clean up their operations is not the whole Green New Deal, and it’s definitely tied to the issue at hand, because Democrats have been seeking accountability amidst the huge payouts that the relief provides for. Republicans have also made a big deal out of provisions like a small amount of support for the Kennedy Center, although people there are among the millions of struggling workers too, and a few Republicans even opposed the whole deal for a time because of the addition of mere hundreds of dollars a week to unemployment benefits. That additional money eventually passed.
Check out Twitter’s response below…
