During an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union over the weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took the Trump administration to task for their failure to help secure Coronavirus relief for the American people. Months ago, the Democrat-led House passed a new economic relief package, but negotiations over the terms of a relief package that Republicans would agree to haven’t hardly gotten anywhere at pretty much any point in the time since. Pelosi insisted over the weekend that any plan to support and protect the economy must include a plan to “crush” the Coronavirus — and the Trump White House and their Republican allies in Congress have, by any reasonable measure, failed on this front.
Host Jake Tapper asked Pelosi if it’s reasonable to assume that there won’t be a relief bill between now and Election Day, which is just around the corner. President Donald Trump has blamed Pelosi for the stalled relief, but it’s clear — she and her Democratic allies have been ready to work at the negotiating table (metaphorically speaking) for months. Trump and his Republican allies have not been consistently ready to negotiate.
Pelosi commented:
‘I’ll never give up hope. I’m optimistic. We put pen to paper and have been writing the bill based on what we hope will be the outcome, what they said they would get back to us on. Here’s the thing. I want to just say to our friends out there who are suffering, and the country is suffering. Working families are suffering. Millions more into poverty. In the month of September, nearly 900,000 women left the workforce. So we have to act. To do anything, though, that does not crush the virus is really official malfeasance and to crush the virus we just have to follow the science: Testing, tracing, treatment, mask wearing, ventilation, separation, and the rest, and that is what Vice President Biden has put forth.’
Check out her comments below:
House Speaker Pelosi on a new stimulus bill: “To do anything, though, that does not crush the virus is really official malfeasance and to crush the virus we just have to follow the science: Testing, tracing, treatment, mask wearing, ventilation, separation, and the rest” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/3CiZj25dPN
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 25, 2020
One of the stunning things is that, with Trump in charge, the White House can’t even be counted on to lead on the basic issues of science that Pelosi mentioned. The Trump White House won’t even insist on mask-wearing — they keep falling back on the argument of relying on personal choice for mask-wearing, but the fact of the matter is that wearing a mask could be the difference between people being alive to make more of those personal choices in the future or not. Nevertheless, during an appearance on the very same show that Pelosi appeared on, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows flatly insisted that “we’re not going to control the pandemic,” as if they’ve almost given up.
MEADOWS: We're not going to control the pandemic
TAPPER: Why not?
M: Because it's a contagious virus
T: Why not make efforts to contain it?
M: What we need to do is make sure we have the proper mitigation factors to make sure people don't die pic.twitter.com/0DYgk4rB3T
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 25, 2020
During her time on CNN over the weekend, Pelosi also pointedly responded to the president’s recent baseless insistence that there’s a chance of Republicans winning the majority in the U.S. House this November. In short — the chance of Republicans winning the majority in the U.S. House is in the single digits.
Pelosi memorably commented to Tapper:
‘You keep thinking that, Mr. President. You just keep on thinking that — just another example of his delusional statements he made there. He said that we’re on the decline [regarding Coronavirus]… that we have the cleanest air, cleanest water.’
Check out Pelosi’s comments below:
Nancy Pelosi on Trump predicting Republicans will win the House: "You keep thinking that, Mr. President. You just keep on thinking that." pic.twitter.com/2tfzdPFEaX
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 25, 2020
