Conservative firebrand Ann Coulter is so mad she&#8217;s backing a Democrat.
Coulter was a &#8220;super-Trumper,&#8221; even penning a book titled &#8220;In Trump We Trust.&#8221; But she says she&#8217;s lost all faith in the president, calling him a “moron” and a “blithering idiot.&#8221;
And now, she&#8217;s going after Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the GOP leader of the Senate. She wants McConnell to lose in November to Democratic opponent Amy McGrath, who recently won the party&#8217;s nomination after a tight race.
&#8220;The lovely Amy McGrath is a Marine Corps veteran. The average donation to her campaign is $36. Mitch McConnell is a broken-down old man owed [sic] by cheap labor lobbyists,&#8221; she wrote on Twitter, referencing McConnell&#8217;s support for some pro-immigration measures. She added &#8220;#DefeatMcConnell.&#8221;
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The lovely Amy McGrath is a Marine Corps veteran. The average donation to her campaign is $36. 
Mitch McConnell is a broken-down old man owed by cheap labor lobbyists.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DefeatMcConnell?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DefeatMcConnell</a>
&mdash; Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/1281688979411271686?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Mitch McConnell is running this year in a CLOSE ELECTION,&#8221; she also wrote. &#8220;If we do not teach these betraying RINOs a lesson, we will be Charlie Brown with the football for our remaining time on earth. KENTUCKIANS: STAY HOME ON NOV 3!&#8221;
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Mitch McConnell is running this year in a CLOSE ELECTION. 
If we do not teach these betraying RINOs a lesson, we will be Charlie Brown with the football for our remaining time on earth.
KENTUCKIANS: STAY HOME ON NOV 3!
&mdash; Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/1281693077325975556?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Coulter also blasted a GOP group affiliated with McConnell that has been running ads to stop Kris Kobach, a Republican, in the Kansas Senate primary. Kobach is one of several candidates running in the Aug. 4 primary for the seat currently held by retiring Sen. Pat Roberts, but &#8220;opponents believe Kobach is a liability due to his views and past record, including a failed 2018 campaign for governor, and would leave the seat vulnerable to being flipped by Democrats in November,&#8221; <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ann-coulter-backs-democrat-defeat-mitch-mcconnell-1517112">Newsweek</a> reports.
&#8220;The latest National Republican Senatorial Committee shows the MAGA candidate, Kris Kobach, beating the open borders candidate, Roger Marshall,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;So Mitch McConnell zoomed in with millions in dollars of ads DEFAMING Kobach as a &#8216;white supremacist.'&#8221;
Then she yelled: &#8220;PLEASE REPUBLICANS, VOTE AGAINST MCCONNELL AND NEVER GIVE HIM ANOTHER DIME.&#8221;
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The latest National Republican Senatorial Committee shows the MAGA candidate, Kris Kobach, beating the open borders candidate, Roger Marshall.
So Mitch McConnell zoomed in with millions in dollars of ads DEFAMING Kobach as a &quot;white supremacist.&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DefeatMcConnell?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DefeatMcConnell</a>
&mdash; Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnCoulter/status/1281688315071287297?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 10, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Along with her friend Matt Drudge &#8212; who has turned against Trump in recent months &#8212; Coulter is clearly angered about the president&#8217;s inability to deliver on his border policy.
Her sudden change prompted <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sethcohen/2020/07/10/ann-coulter-endorsed-a-democrat/#6692cf001d48">Forbes</a> to publish an article headlined, &#8220;Ann Coulter Endorsed A Democrat Over Mitch McConnell — Has The GOP Meltdown Begun?&#8221;
<blockquote>Twitter lit up following Coulter’s Tweets, with many followers expressing shock at the conservative commentator’s uncharacteristic endorsement. Some comments questioned if her account had been hacked, while others bewilderingly welcomed her opposition to the Republican leader that has drawn the ire of Democrats for years. Many who have demonized Coulter for her various conservative and far-right positions, were at great pains to agree with her.
In many ways, however, Coulter’s stunning Tweets aren’t all that surprising given the deepening divide in the GOP as conservative leaders and commentators begin to wonder what a post-Trump Republican party would look like. With President Trump trailing former vice-president Joe Biden in most polls, many GOP insiders are openly speculating whether the President has a meaningful chance to win reelection. As a result, the race for the future of the Republican party is already be getting a head start in advance of the November election.</blockquote>
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&nbsp;

Politicon 2018 &#8211; Day 1

Ann Coulter Calls Mitch McConnell ‘Broken-Down Old Man,’ Calls For His Defeat In November

Ann Coulter

Donald Trump

Mitch McConnell

Democratic Senators have blocked a Republican police reform bill, leaving the legislation dead on the floor of Congress and likely defeating any Federal attempt to address police reform as a whole.
The bill failed before its text ever made it to the floor. Democrats were able to marshal their caucus to defeat a vote designed to bring the issue to the floor for debate and killed the bill 55-45. A total of 60 votes would have been necessary to move the bill forward.
&#8220;Republicans had 53 votes, but not enough Democrats joined them,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-gop-police-reform-bill-fails">Fox News reports</a>. Only Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL), and Sen. Angus King (I-ME) crossed partisan lines.
Democrats fought the Republican bill, led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), which they said did not go far enough in addressing critical issues at the crux of police reform. The bill did not ban the use of chokeholds outright, preferring instead to warn departments to craft their own policies against the practice or risk losing federal funds. The bill also shied away from outlawing so-called &#8220;no-knock&#8221; warrants, preferring instead to establish a national database to track those warrants&#8217; use and abuse.
The House of Representatives, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), has its own bill which the Democratic caucus plans to bring to the floor there on Thursday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was apoplectic about the situation in an interview that took place just after the procedural vote failed.
“The Senate was supposed to officially take up police reform on the floor today. Instead, our Democratic colleagues are poised to turn this routine step into a partisan impasse,” he told reporters, adding that the bill could have been the subject of debate and compromise, but Democrats refused to come to the bargaining table.
McConnell called Democrats&#8217; strategy in proposing the bill &#8220;bizarre,&#8221; particularly given that they refused to even agree to debate the measure.
“They don’t want a debate, they don’t want amendments, they&#8217;ll filibuster police reform from even reaching the floor of the Senate unless the majority lets the minority rewrite the bill behind closed doors in advance,” McConnell said.
The lead up to Wednesday&#8217;s vote has been acrimonious, sometimes to a shocking degree. Speaking late Tuesday, Pelosi accused Republicans, including Scott &#8212; the first black man to serve in both the House and Senate &#8212; of &#8220;trying to get away with murder, actually – the murder of George Floyd.&#8221;
When pressed on the fact that her statement could be considered racially charged, Pelosi refused to apologize.
On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) attacked McConnell directly, warning the ranking Republican that he did not have &#8220;Civil Rights leaders&#8221; on his side.
Since it is unlikely that the Senate will take up any House bill on the issue of police reform, it&#8217;s likely that efforts have ended to pass federal legislation on the matter, despite a nationwide movement.
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McConnell

Democrats Block Republican Police Reform Bill, Kill Hope Of Passing Legislation Amid Protests

Nancy Pelosi

police reform

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has again become the target of protesters’ ire as a group chanted “No justice, no sleep” outside his home.
As The Hill reported, protesters with the progressive Sunrise Movement, a left-wing environmental group, yelled outside McConnell’s home while holding signs.
&#8220;No justice, no sleep Mitch. You let our economy tumble into free-fall, our people be gunned down in the streets by killer cops, &amp; our planet be ravaged by your oil CEO friends. This #Juneteenth, we&#8217;re wide awake. In November when we vote you out, maybe you&#8217;ll wake up, too,&#8221; the group, which is verified on Twitter, tweeted.
It’s anyone’s guess how it is McConnell’s fault that the economy “tumble[d] into free-fall” when it was state governors who ordered businesses to close amid concerns over the novel coronavirus. Also, unarmed black men were “gunned down in the streets by killer cops” during the Obama administration as well, yet somehow a cop-involved death in Minneapolis is also McConnell’s fault.
One banner at the protest read, &#8220;Breonna couldn&#8217;t sleep. Neither should Mitch,&#8221; in reference to the police shooting of Breonna Taylor. Taylor was unarmed in her home when police executed a “no-knock warrant” looking for drugs. They found none, yet Taylor was shot and killed. The incident occurred in Louisville, Kentucky.
Before the protests, McConnell filed a resolution that called Taylor’s shooting an “apparent instance of unjust police violence” and is working to pass a bill introduced by GOP senators that offer numerous police reforms, including police departments report when they use a “no-knock warrant,” but that apparently wasn’t satisfactory to the protesters.
&#8220;We will require new transparency and new reporting from state and local authorities so that surrounding communities and the federal government can all better understand how, when and why this practice is used,&#8221; McConnell said Wednesday.
More from The Hill:
<blockquote>The demonstration comes on Juneteenth, the commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S. It also comes amid the backdrop of a national conversation about police brutality against black Americans after the police killings of Taylor, George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, among others.
&#8220;Not only are we wide awake to the problems that we face,&#8221; Maxwell Farrar, 29, <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2020/06/19/louisville-protesters-march-mitch-mcconnells-home-juneteenth/3220578001/">told the Courier Journal</a>, &#8220;but we&#8217;re also wide awake to the solutions that we need. We&#8217;re not here to just complain on the internet. We&#8217;re here to get the solutions we need. We know, from the hood to the holler, Kentuckians know we need change right now.&#8221;</blockquote>
McConnell has been targeted by protesters before. In August 2019, left-wing protesters went to McConnell’s home, where one <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/far-left-protesters-mcconnells-home-just-stab-ryan-saavedra">hoped</a> somebody would “just stab the mother f***er in the heart, please.” In October 2018, McConnell was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-mitch-mcconnell-confronted-protesters-ashe-schow">harassed</a> as he ate at a restaurant with his wife.
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Protesters Chanting ‘No Justice, No Sleep’ Outside Mitch McConnell’s House

Breonna Taylor

Police

protesters

Former President George W. Bush is speaking out against the “brutal suffocation of George Floyd,” who was killed after a police officer pushed against his neck for nearly nine minutes. In the <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1267922542469222405/photo/1">statement</a>, Bush called on the country to “examine our tragic failures” as well as look for our “redeeming strengths.”
“It remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country. It is a strength when protesters, protected by responsible law enforcement, march for a better future,” said Bush. “This tragedy — in a long series of similar tragedies — raises a long overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society? The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving. Those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of America — or how it becomes a better place”
“America’s greatest challenge has long been to unite people of very different backgrounds into a single nation of justice and opportunity. The doctrine and habits of racial superiority, which once nearly split our country, still threaten our Union,” said Bush, who asserted that the solutions could be found by living up “to the fundamental truth that all human beings are created equal.”
“We have often underestimated how radical that quest really is, and how our cherished principles challenge systems of intended or assumed injustice. The heroes of America — from Frederick Douglass, to Harriet Tubman, to Abraham Lincoln, to Martin Luther King, Jr. — are heroes of unity. Their calling has never been for the fainthearted. They often revealed the nation’s disturbing bigotry and exploitation — stains on our character sometimes difficult for the American majority to examine. We can only see the reality of America’s need by seeing it through the eyes of the threatened, oppressed, and disenfranchised,” continued the former president. 
“That is exactly where we now stand. Many doubt the justice of our country, and with good reason. Black people see the repeated violation of their rights without an urgent and adequate response from American institutions. We know that lasting justice will only come by peaceful means,” said Bush. 
“Looting is not liberation, and destruction is not progress. But we also know that lasting peace in our communities requires truly equal justice. The rule of law ultimately depends on the fairness and legitimacy of the legal system. And achieving justice for all is the duty of all,” he said. 
During a speech on the senate floor on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) also made <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1267548976607301642">remarks</a> on the death of George Floyd, as well as on the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. 
“To me, to a great many of my fellow Kentuckians, and to millions of outraged Americans, these disturbing events do not look like three isolated incidents,” said McConnell. “They look more like the latest chapter in our national struggle to make equal justice and equal protection of the law in the facts of life in all Americans, rather than contingencies that sometimes depend on the color of one&#8217;s skin.”
McConnell also said that the nation cannot “deafen itself to the anger, the pain, or the frustration of black Americans,” and condemned the looting, rioting, arson and violent crimes that have erupted throughout the nation. 
“On a nightly basis, initially peaceful demonstrators have been hijacked. American have watched protests dedicated to ending unjust violence mutate into riots that inflict unjust violence themselves,” he said. “We’ve seen small businesses destroyed and public property defaced. We’ve seen the men and women of law enforcement ⁠— the vast majority of whom are not bad actors ⁠— threatened and assaulted on our streets.”
“You do not advance peace by committing assault. You do not advance justice by inflicting injustice upon your neighbors. You do not promote the rule of law through anarchy,” said McConnell. “There’s no constitutional right to commit violent crime or to terrorize communities. Period.”
“If state and local leaders cannot, or will not secure the peace and protect citizens and their property, I hope the federal government is ready to stand in the breach,” he said. 
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US President George W. Bush speaks on th

Bush Condemns ‘Brutal Suffocation’ Of George Floyd, Says ‘Lasting Justice Will Only Come By Peaceful Means’

George Floyd

George W. Bush

Race

Riots

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) blasted Democrats on Thursday morning for changing House rules to allow for remote voting on legislation, and accused Democrats of “playing games with the Constitution so they can continue their never-ending spring break well into July.”
During a speech on the Senate floor, McConnell spoke out against recent changes to House voting rules, which will allow members to vote on behalf of up to ten other members for the next 45 days.
“Since the early days of this crisis, the self-described ‘People’s House’ has been suspiciously empty of people,” said McConnell. “I understand they’ve convened for legislative session a grand total of two days — two — in the last eight weeks.”
“But there&#8217;s a new wrinkle: House Democrats jammed through a precedent-breaking remote voting scheme that will let one member cast ten additional votes,” he continued. “There will be enormous constitutional questions around anything the House does if they fail to demonstrate a real quorum but plow ahead anyhow.”
Last Friday, the House voted along party lines to allow the Speaker to temporarily change the voting rules. According to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/498399-house-gop-lawmaker-breaks-with-party-to-back-proxy-voting">The Hill</a>, three Democrats voted against the move and no Republicans voted for it. However, Congressman Francis Rooney (R-FL), who was not present for the vote, showed support for it after it passed.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) enacted the rule change on Wednesday, formally allowing members to designate another House member as a proxy for the purposes of voting, reports <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/may/21/nancy-pelosi-defends-proxy-voting-rule-change-we-w/">The Washington Times.</a>
“If some people should stay home because of a health issue — thank you for not sharing. We’d rather you do stay home. And if transportation is difficult in that regard we want their voices to be heard,” said Pelosi. “The planning that has gone into it has been very smart.”
Roll Call <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2020/05/20/pelosi-activates-45-day-authorization-for-proxy-voting-remote-committee-meetings/">reports</a> that any member of the House who wishes to designate a proxy must send a letter to the clerk’s office, but the letter does not require the member to provide voting instructions. The proxy voting period may also be extended, or shortened, based on the Speaker’s correspondence with the Sergeant at Arms.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) told House members in a memo that the “new proxy voting system has been developed to afford members greater flexibility to safely record their votes during this national pandemic,” reports the news agency.
According to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/4/22/21230939/debate-around-remote-voting-in-house-explained">Vox,</a> the speaker previously indicated that the House should only adopt remote voting plans for special circumstances and has also implied that members of congress haven’t been the primary consideration for plans to adopt remote voting.
“It’s not just about us. It’s about the staff, it’s about the press, it’s about the security, it’s about those who run the buildings,” Pelosi told reporters in April.
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Senate Republican Leadership Press Conference in Washington, US

McConnell Blasts House Dems For ‘Precedent-Breaking’ Rule Change: ‘Never-Ending Spring Break’

Coronavirus

COVID-19

Democrats

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) reportedly told House Republicans in a conference call on Wednesday that the temporary unemployment insurance policy, which pays an additional $600 per week in benefits to people out of work, will not be extended past its original end date.
A person “briefed on the call” told <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/20/mcconnell-unemployment-benefits-271661">Politico</a> that McConnell took a firm stance against extending the payment boost during the conference call. Furthermore, the news agency reports the senate majority leader as saying the GOP would “clean up the Democrats’ crazy policy that is paying people more to remain unemployed than they would earn if they went back to work.”
During a private lunch on Tuesday, President Trump also suggested he was against extending the unemployment benefits boost, per “three officials familiar with the remarks” who spoke to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-expresses-opposition-to-extending-unemployment-benefits-enacted-in-response-to-pandemic/2020/05/19/19ae0e50-9a12-11ea-a282-386f56d579e6_story.html">The Washington Post</a>.
While the payment boost has drawn fierce criticism from some Republicans lawmakers, the news agency notes that it isn’t clear whether Trump will veto any legislation that extends it. However, Politico reports that, for now, McConnell wants to hold off on additional coronavirus relief spending, given the recent spending.
According to a working paper from <a href="https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/BFI_WP_202062-1.pdf">The University of Chicago</a>, two-thirds of workers eligible for unemployment insurance “can receive benefits which exceed lost earnings and one-fifth can receive benefits at least double lost earnings.”
The working paper notes:
<blockquote>The current expanded UI system enacted under CARES implies high replacement rates well over 100% for most workers. High replacement rates can provide crucial liquidity necessary for households to smooth consumption during this unprecedented period of economic dislocation. Notably, replacement rates under the CARES Act are highest for the unemployed with the lowest prior earnings who are likely most vulnerable. At the same time, replacement rates over 100% create distributional issues and may hamper efficient labor reallocation both now, and especially during an eventual recovery.</blockquote>
According to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/low-wage-workers-unemployment-cares-act-earn-more-income/">NBC News</a>, House Democrats have vowed to continue the policy, which is set to expire at the end of July, until next January.
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/massive-drafting-error-three-gop-senators-call-for-stimulus-halt-argue-text-incentivizes-layoffs">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported, several Republican lawmakers threatened to prevent the stimulus package from fast-tracking through the Senate precisely because of the wording in the unemployment provision.
“My goal was to add some federal dollars to the pot, to get you back to what you were making with a cap of $600,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of three GOP senators who spoke out against the provision. “This bill pays you more not to work than if you were working.”
“If this is not a drafting error, then it’s the worst idea I’ve seen in a long time, and that’s saying a lot given that we’re in Washington,” he said.
After Graham spoke out against the provision, a Republican spokesperson with the Senate Finance Committee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-spokesperson-disputes-stimulus-layoff-claim-sanders-blasts-trio-for-anti-worker-objections">disputed</a> the layoff claims, saying it was “just the opposite” of a layoff incentive.
“Each state has a different UI program, so the drafters opted for a temporary across-the-board UI boost of $600 dollars, which can deliver needed aid in a timely manner rather than burning time to create a different administrative regime for each state,” said the spokesperson. “This increase is designed to make the average worker whole. It’s also important to remember that nobody who voluntarily leaves an available job is eligible for UI.”
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US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-VIRUS

Report: McConnell Against Extension For Enhanced Unemployment Benefits

Unemployment

On Tuesday, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell made it clear that the GOP-led Senate would indeed pursue an investigation into the alleged abuses committed by federal officials during the Obama administration, asserting, “The American people deserve answers about how such abuses could happen and we intend to get those answers.”
McConnell referenced the FISA warrant calling for surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page:
<blockquote>Does any senator think it’s acceptable for any federal warrant application to include seven significant inaccuracies and omissions? This wasn’t just a run-of-the–mill warrant; it was a FISA warrant to snoop on a presidential campaign. This is just one of the realities that President Trump’s Democratic critics spent years calling “conspiracy theories” or “inventions of the president’s mind.”</blockquote>
Those seven inaccuracies and omissions included, as The Heritage Foundation <a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/igs-report-reveals-4-spurious-allegations-basis-fbi-spying-trump">delineated</a>:
<ol>
<li>The FBI failed to inform the FISA court that it had been notified by another government agency that Page had provided information to that agency and the FBI about some of his contacts with Russian intelligence agents and had approval of “operational contact.”</li>
<li>Stating that Christopher Steele’s prior reporting had been “corroborated and used in criminal proceedings.”</li>
<li>Eliding the fact that although Steele claimed that critical information he was reporting about Page from a “sub-source,” Steele also described this source as a “boaster” and an “egoist” who “may engage in some embellishment.”</li>
<li>Fourth, as the Heritage Foundation wrote, “To bolster Steele’s credibility, the FISA application stated that some of the information that Steele reported had appeared in an article in Yahoo News, and that Steele was not the source for that story. This implied that somebody else had the same information Steele had and could serve as independent corroboration. However, it turns out that Steele was the source for that story, and that the FBI either knew it or easily could have learned it.&#8221;</li>
<li>The FISA application did not acknowledge that George Papadopoulos explicitly denied that anyone from with the Trump campaign was collaborating with the Russians or anyone else about the disclosed DNC emails.</li>
<li>The FBI elided the fact that Page said that he never had met or spoken to Paul Manafort and that Manafort had not responded to any of his emails.</li>
<li>That Page denied meeting the Russians Igor Sechin and Igor Nikolayevich Divyekin, and denied even knowing who Divyekin was.</li>
</ol>
McConnell continued:
<blockquote>Yet here it is, in black and white, from exactly the kind of independent Inspector General that Democrats rush to embrace when convenient. Sadly, this was no isolated incident. Just recently, Attorney General Barr has had to take the incredible step of unwinding a DOJ prosecution of another former Trump advisor because the government’s case against him was unfair or distorted as well. It was largely on the basis of these proceedings that Democrats and the media spent years fixating on wild theories of Russian collusion.
But upon investigation, the Mueller investigation — remember that one?— it is those wild allegations that collapsed along with the credibility of several of these investigations that helped create the cloud of suspicion in the first place …
As if this debacle needed even more shocking behavior, I understand a federal judge may try to continue prosecuting one of these cases even though the prosecution itself wants to drop it. The judge has taken it upon himself to go browsing for other hostile parties.  Obviously, that’s subverts our Constitutional order in which the executive alone decides whether to prosecute cases …
No matter what some Washington Democrats may try to claim, you’re not crazy or a conspiracy theorist if you see a pattern of institutional unfairness toward this president. You would have to be blind not to see one. You would have to be blind not to see one.  All of this is why the Senate passed important FISA reforms in last week’s bill to help bring accountability and transparency into that flawed process, and we aren’t nearly finished.
Just yesterday Chairman (Lindsey) Graham announced the Judiciary Committee will vote on a serious new set of subpoenas so the Senate can hear directly from key players like James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Loretta Lynch, and many others to continue getting to the bottom of this.
So let me say that again: Senate Republicans are taking steps to issue new subpoenas to a wide variety of Obama Administration officials with some relationship to the abuses I’ve laid out. The American people deserve answers about how such abuses could happen and we intend to get those answers.</blockquote>
Video below:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BREAKING</a>: Sen. Mitch McConnell: &quot;Senate Republicans are taking steps to issue new subpoenas to a wide variety of Obama Administration officials.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/61CZraQnBb">https://t.co/61CZraQnBb</a> <a href="https://t.co/BS8mEP9NCo">pic.twitter.com/BS8mEP9NCo</a>
&mdash; The Hill (@thehill) <a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1262785789865480197?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 19, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Senate Lawmakers Address The Media After Their Weekly Policy Luncheons

WATCH: McConnell On Investigating Democrats: ‘We Intend To Get Those Answers’

Andrew McCabe

James Comey

Loretta Lynch

President Donald Trump is reportedly leaning on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to pursue an investigation into the notorious &#8220;Obamagate&#8221; allegations that surfaced last week, suggesting that Republicans could be in danger of losing the Senate if they do not take an aggressive tack towards claims major Obama administration officials pushed to &#8220;unmask&#8221; former national security advisor Michael Flynn.
Trump posted a &#8220;tweetstorm&#8221; Saturday pressuring McConnell to move quickly on Obamagate, even posting articles from The Federalist and other outlets, claiming that McConnell won&#8217;t &#8220;be able to confirm more judges or maintain a Republican majority without addressing the issue,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-mcconnell-russia-hoaxers-accountable">Fox News reports</a>.
&#8220;Mitch, I love you, but this is 100% true,&#8221; Trump wrote, referring to the articles. &#8220;Time is running out. Get tough and move quickly, or it will be too late. The Dems are vicious, but got caught. They MUST pay a big price for what they have done to our Country. Don’t let them get away with this!&#8221;
McConnell hasn&#8217;t addressed the issue of &#8220;Obamagate&#8221; head on, except to criticize former President Barack Obama for lashing out at the Trump administration in a call to donors, audio of which leaked to The New York Times last week. In the call, Obama said he was concerned that the &#8220;rule of law&#8221; was at stake in the 2020 presidential election and excoriated the Trump Department of Justice for dropping perjury charges against Flynn after discovering evidence that Flynn may have been led into a &#8220;perjury trap&#8221; by the FBI.
McConnell called Obama &#8220;classless.&#8221;
“You know, we know he doesn’t like much this administration is doing. That’s understandable. But I think it’s a little bit classless frankly to critique an administration that comes after you,&#8221; he said.  “You had your shot. You were there for eight years. I think the tradition that the Bushes set up of not critiquing the president who comes after you is a good tradition.”
But McConnell, who is now focused on heading off Democrat efforts to spend wildly on a fourth coronavirus relief package full of handouts to key Democrat constituencies, likely would not be in charge of handling any Obamagate investigation. That job would fall to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC), whom administration officials seem concerned won&#8217;t pursue the case aggressively.
Last week, Graham resisted President Trump&#8217;s push to have former President Obama testify in front of the Senate as to why he and others in his inner circle were so desperate to &#8220;unmask&#8221; unnamed individuals listed in intelligence reports as having communicated with a Russian ambassador under surveillance.
“I don’t think now’s the time for me to do that. I don’t know if that’s even possible. I have grave concerns about the role of executive privilege and all kinds of issues,” Graham said. “I understand President Trump’s frustration, but be careful what you wish for. Just be careful what you wish for.”
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

mitch mcconnell

Trump Presses McConnell To Pursue ‘Obamagate,’ Wants Senate Investigation

Barack Obama

Lindsey Graham

Michael Flynn

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced a $3 trillion fourth coronavirus relief package Tuesday, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is in no hurry to see it come to the floor of the Senate.
Speaking to reporters late Monday, McConnell says he feels no pressure to negotiate with Democrats on the HEROES Act, which contains everything from a student loan bailout to a $375 billion relief package for states and cities with existing debt problems, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-unveils-3-trillion-relief-bill-packed-with-handouts-vote-planned-friday">as The Daily Wire reported Tuesday</a>. The bill also contains a $25 billion bailout for the United States Postal Service, $175 billion in payouts to healthcare providers, and millions to purchase laptops and other items for House Members who need them to vote remotely.
The bill also provides an additional three months of $1,200 stimulus checks for most taxpayers.
Republicans, McConnell said, are still &#8220;assessing what we&#8217;ve done already,&#8221; and will wait to see what impact the CARES Act and other coronavirus spending bills have on the existing economic situation before deciding what further relief might be necessary, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/11/senate-relief-coronavirus-249428">Politico reports</a>.
“I’m in constant communication with the White House and if we decide to go forward we’ll go forward together,” McConnell added. “We have not yet felt the urgency of acting immediately. That time could develop, but I don’t think it has yet.”
Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-SD) called the HEROES Act &#8220;more like a messaging document than anything else.&#8221;
Indeed, Pelosi put out the call to Democratic leadership last week to submit a &#8220;laundry list&#8221; of desired items for inclusion in the Act, which topped out, today, at more than 1,800 pages. Democrats themselves admitted last week that the bill reads more like a &#8220;wish list&#8221; than anything else and is a starting point for negotiations, not a final product.
But in order for Democrats to negotiate, Republicans must come to the bargaining table, and McConnell is in no hurry, Politico says, to take his seat. The Senate Majority leader &#8220;has offered Republican senators no timeline on the next bill.&#8221;
In fact, McConnell has said that he&#8217;s not open to considering any more massive spending bills until he knows the true state of the American economy, which is suffering considerably as a result of coronavirus-related lockdowns. He&#8217;s also expressed significant opposition to extending handouts to state and municipalities, suggesting that any state looking for a bailout should consider Chapter 9 bankruptcy rather than relying on the American taxpayers.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) launched his first attack on the opposition in his own briefing Tuesday, claiming that Democrats are &#8220;moving really fast and big and bold. And Leader McConnell hasn’t done anything. The American people will be very much behind the kind of big, bold solution that the House is proposing.&#8221;
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

McConnell: There’s No Pressure To Negotiate On Pelosi Relief Package

Charles Schumer

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ripped former President Obama for speaking out against the current administration, something rarely done in recent years.
McConnell (R-KY) appeared on Monday’s episode of “Team Trump Online!” with host Lara Trump, the Trump campaign’s senior adviser, and responded to Obama’s attacks against President Trump revealed in leaked audio of a Friday phone call. McConnell said Obama’s criticisms violated a tradition that former President George W. Bush had respected during the Obama administration.
“You know, generally former presidents just don’t do that. I remember President George W. Bush and his father went right through eight years of Democratic administrations after they left office and kept their mouths shut because they didn’t feel it was appropriate for former presidents to critique even the president of another party,” McConnell said.
“I think President Obama should have kept his mouth shut, you know. We know he doesn’t like much this administration is doing. That’s understandable, but I think it’s a little bit classless, frankly, to critique an administration that comes after you,” he continued. “You had your shot. You were there for eight years. I think the tradition that the Bushs set up of not critiquing the president that comes after you is a good tradition.”
<iframe title="WATCH: Team Trump Online with Lara Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell!" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lgf1r9mw4tQ?start=1841&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
In a Friday phone call with thousands of alumni of his administration, Obama <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/he-didnt-have-a-clue-trump-fires-back-at-obama-over-leaked-phone-call-in-massive-twitter-rant">slammed</a> Trump’s coronavirus response while defending his administration’s decision to move forward with an investigation of Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump’s Department of Justice dropped perjury charges against Flynn last week after unsealed FBI documents revealed the investigation into Flynn was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-doj-just-dropped-its-case-against-flynn-here-are-some-of-the-key-moments">based</a> on meager evidence.
“The fact that there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free, that’s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic — not just institutional norms — but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk,” Obama <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/obama-worried-that-flynn-cleared-by-doj-over-illegitimate-investigation-rule-of-law-is-at-risk">said</a>, referring to Flynn’s case.
Attorney General William Barr <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/attorney-general-william-barr-on-michael-flynn-obamacare-and-coronavirus-restrictions-transcript/">said</a> that the FBI’s Jan. 24, 2017 interview with Flynn, which became the basis to charge Flynn with lying to the FBI, was actually a “perjury trap” top FBI officials had set up to get Flynn. Barr dropped the case based off the recommendation of U.S. district attorney Jeffrey Jensen, whom Barr assigned to review the case in February.
Obama also called the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic an “absolute chaotic disaster” and later blamed Trump for exacerbating political division in the country.
“It would have been bad even with the best of governments,” Obama claimed. “It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset – of ‘what’s in it for me’ and ‘to heck with everybody else’ – when that mindset is operationalized in our government.”
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Mitch McConnell: ‘President Obama Should Have Kept His Mouth Shut’ About Trump

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is reportedly drafting a multi-trillion dollar coronavirus aid package that includes a $750 billion bailout for states and municipalities affected by the novel coronavirus &#8212; and Republicans are not being asked to consult.
The aid package, which would be the fourth coronavirus aid package issued in just under three months &#8212; only weeks after the $2.2 trillion CARES Act &#8212; is focused on providing what Democrats believe are &#8220;much needed&#8221; funds to states and cities laboring under massive debt, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/democrats-push-ahead-with-coronavirus-plan-amid-break-in-talks-11589112001?mod=hp_lead_pos10">according to the Wall Street Journal</a>, but Republicans caution that federal legislators might be trying to bail out their suffering state colleagues, many of whom are trying to erase debt that long predates the coronavirus pandemic.
Republicans, led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), say they will not consider yet another massive spending bill until they can be sure the now-shaky American economy won&#8217;t suffer more damage as a result.
But Pelosi does not appear to be taking Republican advice into consideration, and Republican lawmakers say they have yet to be consulted, let alone invited to collaborate, on Pelosi&#8217;s gargantuan bill.
&#8220;Bipartisan meetings, which have driven previous aid bills toward passage, are on pause,&#8221; the WSJ says. &#8220;Larry Kudlow, a top economic adviser to Mr. Trump, said Friday that formal negotiations over the next coronavirus relief package wouldn’t resume until late May or early June.&#8221;
&#8220;We’ve really not been invited into those discussions yet,” one Republican legislator admitted to the outlet.
That could be because Pelosi is looking to keep the true contents of the bill under wraps until she and others are ready to unveil it themselves. Last week, Pelosi phoned Congressional leaders to ask them to submit a laundry list of aid requests, telling them to &#8220;think big,&#8221; and admitting that the bill would be a &#8220;wish list&#8221; of Democratic policy initiatives, in order to give the party a better position from which to negotiate.
Now, the WSJ reveals, Pelosi intends to put state bailouts front and center, handing them three quarters of a trillion dollars, even though Republicans have said they will not support bailing out any state or local government whose debt predates COVID-19.
Democratic governors are begging for the relief. New York&#8217;s Andrew Cuomo said he&#8217;d ask Congress personally for a bailout, even though his state&#8217;s debt problem stems from high Medicaid costs and population loss; millions of taxpayers have fled New York for states with a lower tax burden.
In Illinois, the grab is even bigger.
&#8220;llinois Senate President Don Harmon last week sent a plea for a $41.6 billion federal bailout to his state’s Democratic Congressional caucus,&#8221; <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/bail-out-the-states-11587597191">the WSJ reported earlier this month</a>. &#8220;He wants $15 billion in no-strings-attached cash; $6 billion for the state’s unemployment trust fund; $10 billion for pensions; and $9.6 billion in unrestricted aid for cities including Chicago and its unreformed pensions.&#8221;
McConnell has said he&#8217;d much prefer states and cities file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy restructuring than rely on American taxpayers to bail them out of long-standing debt problems.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

nancy pelosi

Nancy Pelosi Drafts $750 Billion State Bailout Bill, Republicans Not Invited To Collaborate

House Democrats, lead by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) are &#8220;forging ahead&#8221; with plans for a fourth coronavirus relief package, even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate will not entertain any spending bills until they can be sure the multi-trillion handouts won&#8217;t topple the precarious American economy.
The CARES Act 4, as it&#8217;s being called, definitely seems as if it will run afoul of McConnell&#8217;s requirements.
<a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/huddle/2020/05/05/house-dems-go-it-alone-on-next-relief-bill-489127">Politico reports</a> that Democrats have decided to &#8220;go it alone&#8221; on the package, drafting the measure without Republican input and without Republican consent, even though House Democrats have yet to officially return from April recess. Pelosi and House majority leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) have called time on Democrats&#8217; return, they say, over fears that the mostly elderly caucus would be at risk for contracting and spreading the coronavirus.
While they&#8217;re working from home, though, key Democratic legislators are to compile &#8220;wish lists&#8221; and submit them to Pelosi who, Politico says, will compile them into a final document to be presented with Congress finally reconvenes.
&#8220;Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked her chairmen to submit their drafts for &#8216;CARES 2&#8217; before the close of business yesterday, with the goal of releasing a sweeping proposal by Friday that could be ready for a floor vote as soon as next week,&#8221; the outlet noted.
And Pelosi doesn&#8217;t want small asks: &#8220;&#8216;Think big,&#8217; Pelosi instructed lawmakers on a Democratic caucus call.'&#8221;
McConnell is poised to refuse to bring a massive spending bill to the floor, but Pelosi seems to believe that, if Democrats compile a &#8220;policy wishlist,&#8221; they can use the bloated draft to negotiate down to a suitable bill. For her part, she&#8217;s reportedly including items from her March &#8220;CARES Act 3&#8221; proposal, which sidelined that relief bill for days as Senate Republicans and Democrats, who&#8217;d previously agreed on a relief package, argued over Pelosi&#8217;s minutae.
Included there, and potentially in the CARES 4 bill, was a bailout of the United States Post Office, and major handouts to state and local governments. The latter, at least, is expected to be a major point of contention between Democrats and Republicans in the next round of negotiations, particularly as states like Illinois seek bailouts for financial troubles that long predate coronavirus lockdowns.
McConnell has already said he&#8217;d favor allowing states to declare bankruptcy before he&#8217;d allow taxpayer money, designed to help states and municipalities handle coronavirus-specific issues, to go to pay off unfunded pension liabilities and budget shortfalls.
Republicans, meanwhile, told Politico that any new relief package must include liability restrictions &#8212; something Democrats say they won&#8217;t support &#8212; and a payroll tax cut, which neither party wanted included in previous relief packages. The White House has been the main proponent of the payroll tax cut, which they say would help businesses, shut down by coronavirus lockdowns, make a quicker return to profitability.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

‘Think Big’: Pelosi Demands Coronavirus Relief Wish Lists From Dems, Will Forge Ahead On Bill Without Republican Input

President Donald Trump and daughter Ivanka Trump hosted an event on Tuesday that featured small business owners from around the country sharing their feedback on the administration&#8217;s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which has been spearheaded by Ivanka Trump.
&#8220;Amy Wright, the owner of Bitty &amp; Beau&#8217;s Coffee Shops that currently employs 120 individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, joined the president on stage to praise the &#8216;very accessible&#8217; financial aid allocated for small businesses shuttered by the coronavirus,&#8221; Fox News reported.
“We employ 120 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. For most of them, it is their first paying job, which made the decision for us to temporarily close all five of our shops especially difficult,” Wright said. “But, thanks to the Paycheck Protection Program and the incredible team, all 120 employees are back on the payroll today and working from home writing handwritten notes that we include with each online order we ship.”
Michael Heup, who works for Wright, said on stage, &#8220;At Bitty &amp; Beau’s, we use the phrase ‘not broken’ &#8212; that means me and all my coworkers are not broken and we have lots to offer. I know that the great country of the United States isn&#8217;t broken either. So on behalf of myself and all the employees, thank you.&#8221;
Ivanka Trump responded to the event by telling Fox News, “Bitty &amp; Beau’s Coffee represents the backbone of our economy and the heart of American business. Through the successful Paycheck Protection Program, we have been able to give this shining light a lifeline during this unprecedented crisis. It’s been an honor to get to know Amy, and meet her colleague Michael, as we host them at the White House and share their incredible story.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
THANK YOU MICHAEL! <a href="https://twitter.com/bittyandbeaus?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@bittyandbeaus</a> <a href="https://t.co/KVXVcdO79E">pic.twitter.com/KVXVcdO79E</a>
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1255325711960768514?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
While Republicans were aggressively pushing to pass an additional funding bill to replenish the $350 billion in the PPP, Democrats blocked and stalled it from passing, which <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/9/senate-democrats-block-additional-250-billion-smal/">hurt</a> American businesses and citizens.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pelosi-claims-gop-stalled-ppp-funding-she-praised-democrats-for-blocking-it?itm_source=parsely-api%3Futm_content%3Dop_ed&amp;utm_campaign=daily_shapiro&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=housefile&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9BYFqxtKRwqzZS4b2jveNXfkUDJGSWizMbY0xepOFpO4bCxkFY5yDyqgpYO7gbzmPzJUeZg1KqsCI0nmGGQEWm5ZNJh-rsxNkvmqTUt3aiMSRnllM&amp;_hsmi=86896848">claimed</a> that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republicans were responsible for the delay in getting the additional funding passed, which is not true. In fact, Pelosi even praised Democrats at the time for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-nancy-pelosi-congratulates-senate-democrats-for-stalling-250-billion-small-business-aid-program">blocking</a> the bill which would have added $250 billion to the PPP.
The Republican-led Senate passed a a massive $484 billion aid package last week to help struggling small businesses, which included funds for the PPP, after Senate Democrats blocked the move to help Americans last week.
The coronavirus relief package replenishes the “small business rescue program known as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), provide hospitals with another $75 billion and implement a nationwide virus testing program to facilitate reopening the economy,” Fox News’ Gregg Re <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-leaders-reach-agreement-phase-3-5-coronavirus-stimulus-package">reported</a>. “The new deal would provide more than $300 billion for the PPP, with $60 billion or so set aside — and divided equally — for smaller banks and community lenders that seek to focus on under-banked neighborhoods and rural areas.”
The bill makes another “$60 billion available for a small-business loans and grants program delivered through an existing small-business disaster aid program, $10 billion of which would come in the form of direct grants.”
McConnell slammed Pelosi and the Democrats for their game playing, which delayed getting money to American businesses suffering from the pandemic.
“Senate Republicans wanted more funding for Americans’ paychecks nearly two weeks ago, before the program even shut down. But in the days that our Democratic colleagues delayed these urgent funds, additional federal help for hospitals, healthcare providers, and testing became timely as well,” McConnell <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-gop-senate-passes-massive-bill-to-help-americans-after-democrats-previously-blocked-it">said</a>. “Republicans have always supported more medical funding as soon as necessary. So I am proud this package will provide roughly $75 billion more to fund hospitals and healthcare providers in this crisis.”
“It’s unfortunate that it took our Democratic colleagues 12 days to agree to a deal that contains essentially nothing that Republicans ever opposed,” McConnell continued. “In my view it is indefensible that Main Street small businesses and their workers had their assistance cut off for partisan ‘leverage.’ That was the word of choice for one leading House Democrat – ‘leverage.’”
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

US-politics-health-VIRUS-TRUMP

Business Owner: Paycheck Protection Program Kept 120 Special Needs Workers Employed

Economy

Ivanka Trump

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell explained to Fox News on Tuesday that a remark he made a few days ago about letting states go bankrupt has nothing to do with the current pandemic but was referring to their past financial decisions.
&#8220;We&#8217;re certainly open to considering additional assistance to state and local governments, on top of what we have already done in the CARES Act,&#8221; McConnell said.  &#8220;It is important, however, to understand that many states have systemic, longstanding challenges, many of them their pension funds, many of them from overspending. So, what we&#8217;re saying here is, we&#8217;re not interested in rescuing badly run states from the mistakes they have made completely unrelated to the coronavirus.&#8221;
&#8220;So, let me make it perfectly clear. We are open to considering another bill. But my red line in going forward on this bill is, we need to provide protection, litigation protection, for those who&#8217;ve been on the front line, hospitals, doctors, nurses,&#8221; McConnell continued. &#8220;And imagine you&#8217;re a businessman thinking about reopening, and you have heard that the trial lawyers all over the country are sharpening their pencils, getting ready to sue you, claiming that you didn&#8217;t engage in proper distancing or other issues related to health and safety.&#8221;
&#8220;Look, we can&#8217;t pass another bill unless we have liability protections. And that&#8217;s the only way we&#8217;re going to ultimately begin to get past this. And that is to begin to open up the economy again,&#8221; McConnell concluded. &#8220;We have to have businesses brave enough to open up again, employees brave enough to go back to work. And I&#8217;m glad to see that some of the states are beginning to move in the direction of reopening.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe title="McConnell hits back at Dems: Can&#039;t pass bill without liability protection" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aa1eweVnjhs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
TRANSCRIPT:
<blockquote>SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D-NY): The aid is not going to &#8212; quote &#8212; &#8220;governments.&#8221;
It&#8217;s going to police officers, firefighters, bus drivers, food health safety inspectors. These are the people who need help. There&#8217;s going to be massive layoffs at the state and local level unless we get some money to them quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: All right, that was Chuck Schumer responding to comments made by Mitch McConnell in a radio interview a few days ago, where he entertained the possibility that states in real duress could always file for bankruptcy.
The senator joins us right now on the phone.
Mitch McConnell, very good to have you.
What did you think of what Chuck Schumer said? This isn&#8217;t being wasted; this is going to those directly impacted by the coronavirus?
What do you say?
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Well, we&#8217;re certainly open to considering additional assistance to state and local governments, on top of what we have already done in the CARES Act.
It is important, however, to understand that many states have systemic, longstanding challenges, many of them their pension funds, many of them from overspending. So, what we&#8217;re saying here is, we&#8217;re not interested in rescuing badly run states from the mistakes they have made completely unrelated to the coronavirus.
So, let me make it perfectly clear. We are open to considering another bill. But my red line in going forward on this bill is, we need to provide protection, litigation protection, for those who&#8217;ve been on the front line, hospitals, doctors, nurses.
And imagine you&#8217;re a businessman thinking about reopening, and you have heard that the trial lawyers all over the country are sharpening their pencils, getting ready to sue you, claiming that you didn&#8217;t engage in proper distancing or other issues related to health and safety.
Look, we can&#8217;t pass another bill unless we have liability protections. And that&#8217;s the only way we&#8217;re going to ultimately begin to get past this. And that is to begin to open up the economy again.
We have to have businesses brave enough to open up again, employees brave enough to go back to work. And I&#8217;m glad to see that some of the states are beginning to move in the direction of reopening.
CAVUTO: All right, but you&#8217;re &#8212; already, your idea &#8212; maybe it was just something you threw out there, that tort reform could be part of more aid to the states.
Nancy Pelosi responded that Democrats are not interested in COVID-19 tort reform. The House has no interest in diminishing protections for employees and customers.
What do you say to that?
MCCONNELL: Well, let me make it perfectly clear.
The Senate is not interested in passing a bill that does not have liability protections. So, that&#8217;s an integral part of our economy getting back to normal.
So, we&#8217;re going back to work. The Senate&#8217;s coming back next Monday. We&#8217;re perfectly willing to discuss the way forward, but the way you make a law, it has to pass the House and the Senate.
What I&#8217;m saying is, we have a red line on liability. It won&#8217;t pass the Senate without it.
CAVUTO: So, what would happen, though, Senator, if a business, feeling that it is emboldened by liability protection, that it doesn&#8217;t do some basic things, like masks and other protections for workers, because it might feel that it&#8217;s legally bulletproof and doesn&#8217;t have to?
MCCONNELL: Well, it&#8217;s a good question.
I mean, you have to carefully craft a liability protection to deal with the money that would be supplied to state and local governments, conditioned upon them enacting at the state level the kind of legislation that would provide liability protection for those who are seeking to go forward and to get the economy back up to work.
Look, Neil, I have been talking to businesspeople all over the country. There&#8217;s a good deal of fear about getting back to normal, knowing full well the losses that are awaiting unless we address this issue.
So, this is an integral part of getting the economy back up and running, getting the country back up and running. And that will be a condition for providing additional assistance to state and local government.
CAVUTO: Let me ask you, Senator.
You made some news in this Axios report, I&#8217;m sure you have heard about where you said, we need to keep the White House, Democrats in a box. Both need to get the message.
You were referring to infrastructure. The president intimated today at his small business conference that he was still open to that, pooh-poohed the notion that maybe you two are in disagreement.
So, maybe I can get some clarity from you. Are you open and would you agree to infrastructure spending as part of a future stimulus relief plan?
MCCONNELL: Well, we have an equal interest in doing an infrastructure bill.
We don&#8217;t have an equal interest in borrowing money for future generations to pay for it. In other words, it&#8217;s unrelated to the coronavirus pandemic, which is the reason we have run up the national debt $2.8 trillion.
So, I agree with the president. Infrastructure is important. I just don&#8217;t believe that we should be borrowing, adding to the national debt. We have added $2.8 trillion to the national debt in the last month. I just don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s the path to getting an infrastructure bill.
I do agree with him that we need to do that. We&#8217;re going to pass a more modest infrastructure bill in the Senate in the near future, since we&#8217;re coming back to work next Monday.
CAVUTO: But, just to be clear, as far as the next round of stimulus, you do not want it to be infrastructure? Am I getting that right?
MCCONNELL: Yes, I&#8217;ll be clearer, that infrastructure is unrelated to the coronavirus pandemic that we&#8217;re all experiencing and trying to figure out how to go forward.
We have borrowed an incredible amount of money here over the last month. And we need to make sure that whatever additional legislation we do is directly related to this pandemic, and to try to get it in the rear-view mirror and get the country back up and running again.
CAVUTO: Senator, while I have you here, you made an interesting comment when you were talking to our Guy Benson on FOX News Radio, in which you were describing maybe some of the problems around the president and the health care task force briefings, in which you said, American people are most interested in the advice from the health professionals about how to conduct their lives safely.
Were you saying that the president shouldn&#8217;t talk as much?
MCCONNELL: No, I wasn&#8217;t saying that.
But I think the American people are interested in what our health experts have to say about this pandemic. We have never had this particular disease before. They&#8217;re anxious to get information about how to conduct their lives consistently with the recommendations, so we can safely go about our business.
One of the reasons we put $25 billion in the additional bill, over and above the CARES bill that we passed last week, for testing is that we&#8217;re not there yet on testing, not only the &#8212; what kind of tests, but how many of them actually will tell you something other than you don&#8217;t have it at the moment.
And we don&#8217;t get have a treatment, and we don&#8217;t yet have a vaccine. So, we allocated $25 billion at that whole area of testing and treatment and the vaccine in the bill that we just passed last week.
CAVUTO: Right.
MCCONNELL: That&#8217;s all part of reassuring everyone that they can safely go back to work.
CAVUTO: So, I guess what I&#8217;m asking you, without belaboring the point, sir, is that whether you wanted to restructure the briefings as they are now, you said, to the extent that the White House decides to recraft these briefings to reflect that goal, referring to the medical information you want to hear from the experts, that is probably a good idea.
Did that mean that either the briefings should be shorter, the health care task force members only, Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx, that sort of thing, or what specifically would be most beneficial, do you think, to the American people?
MCCONNELL: Yes, I don&#8217;t &#8212; I don&#8217;t have any advice to give the White House about how to handle the briefings. I don&#8217;t have any advice to give them at all.
CAVUTO: So, you were not meaning to imply that these &#8212; any comments, apart from the medical experts, were &#8212; were not necessary?
MCCONNELL: No, I wasn&#8217;t.
CAVUTO: OK.
MCCONNELL: I did think that the medical experts are the ones the public is the most interested in, for obvious reasons, because they&#8217;re interested in how they can go about their business safely.
CAVUTO: Finally, Senator, the president talks about a V-shaped recovery out of this.
It&#8217;s going to be tough, especially given the staggered nature of opening up.
Are you worried that that&#8217;s going to be tough? There will be an economic pickup as people get back, but it might not last &#8212; it might take a while to get going. Are you in the camp that it&#8217;s going to be a sharp increase or a slow one?
MCCONNELL: Honestly, Neil, I don&#8217;t know.
I think we have &#8212; we&#8217;re in a place we have never been before. We&#8217;re all hoping for a more rapid recovery. I think we get a more rapid recovery if we have liability reform, if we have testing that reassures people, because the economy won&#8217;t truly be open unless everybody&#8217;s willing to participate in the economy once again.
So, I&#8217;m not an expert on these things. And we have &#8212; this is an experience we haven&#8217;t had before.
CAVUTO: Yes.
MCCONNELL: So, it&#8217;s hard to figure out what may happen as we move ahead.
But we do know we need to move ahead. And I&#8217;m pleased that a number of states are beginning to move in the direction of opening up the economy&#8211;
CAVUTO: All right.
MCCONNELL: &#8212; consistent with the phase one recommendations of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
CAVUTO: Very good. We shall see.
All right, Mitch McConnell, thank you very much.​</blockquote>

U.S.-WASHINGTON D.C.-SENATE-TRUMP-ACQUITTAL

McConnell: Remark On Not Bailing Out States About State’s Past Decisions, Not Related To Pandemic

Fox News anchor Bret Baier ripped House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Thursday for falsely claiming that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was responsible for delaying passage of a new bill to replenish funds in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
&#8220;Let’s just set the record straight here. There was a clean bill that once they found out that the small business pot was going to be dry, there was a clean bill to put more money in it,&#8221; Baier said. &#8220;Nancy Pelosi did not go forward with that, period, the end, stop there.&#8221;
&#8220;So yes, they wanted to do other things, Democrats did,&#8221; Baier continued. &#8220;But to have an answer that says that it was Mitch McConnell who delayed is really political jujitsu. And you have to have somebody that pushes back and says, wait a second, in that time that there was a delay, there are X number of small businesses around the country that had to make the decision, &#8216;I have not gotten the money, so I have to let these people go.'&#8221;
&#8220;So when the number goes up 4.4 million on unemployment, there is a reason that it goes up that way,&#8221; Baier concluded. &#8220;And that delay is part of it.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“Let&#39;s set the record straight. Once Republicans found out the PPP was going to run dry, there was a clean bill to replenish it. Nancy Pelosi didn&#39;t go for it. Period. So to say that the delay was Mitch McConnell&#39;s fault is just political jiujitsu for Nancy Pelosi.” <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FoxNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/YUwqxRTUsT">pic.twitter.com/YUwqxRTUsT</a>
&mdash; Bret Baier (@BretBaier) <a href="https://twitter.com/BretBaier/status/1253451226320166920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 23, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe"> subscriber</a>.

Late Night with Seth Meyers &#8211; Season 4

Baier Rips Pelosi For Falsely Blaming McConnell For PPP Delay: ‘Stop There’

Bret Baier

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had harsh words for a handful of states that are looking to use coronavirus relief funds from the CARES Act and from a potential fourth coronavirus relief package to pay outstanding debt they incurred before the disease struck: they should handle their own financial matters even if that means they have to declare bankruptcy.
The pointed comment was aimed at states like Illinois, whose Democratic legislators, in a letter circulated last week and later <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-coronavirus-don-harmon-40-billion-federal-request-20200418-pgseb5swvfcxvk3qtq7yuchcqi-story.html">obtained by The New York Times</a>, raised the possibility of begging the federal government for a bailout in the next coronavirus relief package, forcing national taxpayers to foot the bill for a $41.6 billion bailout package, $10 billion of which would go directly to Illinois&#8217; public sector employee unions &#8212; debt incurred decades before coronavirus appeared on the scene.
Illinois is in dire financial straits, and Illinois&#8217; Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, had planned to ask voters to approve a change to the state&#8217;s constitution in November that would have allowed for a dramatic hike in the income tax. That&#8217;s unlikely to pass now that hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents are unemployed, thanks to an ongoing coronavirus-related pandemic, which the state now believes could extend into June.
Newspapers in Illinois, from both the left and right, were &#8220;appalled&#8221; at the prospect of taking federal bailout money to handle Illinois&#8217; pension crisis,  <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ebauer/2020/04/20/illinois-pension-bailout-request-reaction-roundupand-why-its-a-nonstarter/#10405ede6c2a">Forbes reports</a>, but Democrats seem determined to request the funds, regardless.
McConnell said, <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mcconnell-says-he-favors-allowing-states-to-declare-bankruptcy/ar-BB1336bq">in an interview with Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday</a>, that he won&#8217;t allow Illinois &#8212; or California or Connecticut &#8212; to make their financial issues the country&#8217;s problem, particularly while the national economy remains in lockdown.
“You raised yourself the important issue of what states have done, many of them have done to themselves with their pension programs,” McConnell said. “There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.”
States that need money to cope with coronavirus-related expenses will receive help, McConnell said, agreeing with President Donald Trump, who raised the possibility of handouts to states after meeting with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The total for such a bailout, the National Governors Association estimates, could run into the hundreds of billions of dollars just for states, perhaps as high as $500 billion. For cities, it could be an additional $250 billion.
But, McConnell warned, there will be limits to Congress&#8217; generosity.
“I said yesterday we’re going to push the pause button here, because I think this whole business of additional assistance for state and local governments needs to be thoroughly evaluated,” McConnell said.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been drafting the fourth coronavirus relief package and McConnell expects it to total somewhere around $1.1 trillion, and give generous assistance to state and local governments.
McConnell also said Thursday that he will press &#8220;pause&#8221; on any relief package until at least May so that Congress can evaluate the nation&#8217;s economic health and whether further spending bills will help in the recovery or whether they will mire the United States in further financial difficulty.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">subscriber</a>.

Mitch MCConnell

Mitch McConnell Slams States Looking To Use Coronavirus Relief As A Bailout: They Should Go Bankrupt

Illinois

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is engaged in a major public relations initiative, appearing on friendly media outlets to decry Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for &#8220;dragging his feet&#8221; on a bill to inject much-needed billions into the Paycheck Protection Program, a forgivable-loan fund largely for small businesses and franchises.
Pelosi seems determined to forget the events of the past two weeks, including interviews and press conferences she held where she implied there was no imminent need to refill the PPP&#8217;s coffers, and appearances on late night television featuring her $24,000 SubZero refrigerator/freezer.
On MSNBC Wednesday, Pelosi laid the blame for the stalled supplemental bill squarely at the feet of McConnell, whom she claims &#8220;delayed&#8221; the relief bill by days.
&#8220;Mitch McConnell likes to say we delayed the bill. No, he delayed the bill,&#8221; Pelosi told MSNBC. &#8220;Two weeks ago, he came to the floor and said, &#8216;This is all we’re doing. Just the 250.&#8217; And Democrats were reunited, House and Senate. The Senate Democrats went to the floor and said, &#8216;No, no. &#8230; We have a better idea about hospitals and testing and more funds for all of the businesses, the lower — shall we say the unbankable small businesses.'&#8221;
Pelosi quickly added that she and her colleagues were &#8220;relieved&#8221; to learn yesterday that McConnell &#8220;finally came around to the fact that we had to go forward with this.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Unreal, Nancy Pelosi blames Mitch McConnell for delaying the latest Wuhan coronavirus relief bill: &quot;Mitch McConnell likes to say that we delayed the bill. No, he delayed the bill&#8230;So he was the one wasting time.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/DUE2spL7n0">pic.twitter.com/DUE2spL7n0</a>
&mdash; Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) <a href="https://twitter.com/Julio_Rosas11/status/1252950610653188096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 22, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
McConnell, of course, wanted a clean funding bill for the PPP &#8212; $250 billion in funding for the emptying program, so that it could continue operating in the interim between coronavirus relief plans. Democrats, sensing desperation, demanded the bill include a number of additional provisions, including money for hospitals, health care facilities, and state and local governments &#8212; all of which received a share of the $2.2 trillion CARES act that passed two weeks ago.
McConnell, unable to get the measure passed by unanimous consent in the Senate, was forced to negotiate &#8212; a situation that ultimately doubled the cost of the bill.
Last week, just two days before the PPP ran out of money completely, Pelosi was captured on tape in her weekly press conference suggesting that there was &#8220;no data&#8221; to support the idea that the PPP required a quick cash infusion. On Thursday, before the end of the day, the fund ran out of money.
Republicans didn&#8217;t take kindly to Pelosi&#8217;s blame-shifting, telling reporters Wednesday morning that Pelosi was rewriting history.
&#8220;The only explanation for Speaker Pelosi to blame anyone but herself for the Paycheck Protection Program delay is that she still has a brain freeze from all that expensive ice cream&#8230;,&#8221; one Republican operative said, referring to Pelosi&#8217;s massive freezer, which she opened for a late night host last week, revealing a stock of expensive artisanal treats.
McConnell may get the last word on the Speaker, however. In a meeting today, the Senate Majority Leader told reporters that the fourth coronavirus relief bill, which Pelosi planned to introduce in late April, was now off the table.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">subscriber</a>.

WATCH: Nancy Pelosi Claims REPUBLICANS Stalled Small Business Relief Bill

Democrats may have gotten concessions on an emergency relief package to refill the Paycheck Protection Program, which ran out of money late last week as small businesses scrambled to apply for the PPP&#8217;s forgivable-interest loans, but it may have come at a cost: there will be no fourth coronavirus relief package anytime soon, despite Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi&#8217;s (D-CA) plans and efforts.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) &#8220;hit the breaks&#8221; on a fourth relief package Wednesday morning, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/494005-mcconnell-hits-brakes-on-phase-four-coronavirus-relief">according to The Hill</a>, telling a press conference that the emergency relief bill was enough for now, particularly given that it included further handouts to hospitals and health care facilities.
McConnell added that lawmakers must begin to address the idea that increased spending may not slow the spread of coronavirus or save a swiftly declining economy.
&#8220;I think it&#8217;s also time to begin to think about the amount of debt we&#8217;re adding to our country and the future impact of that. &#8230; Until we can begin to open up the economy, we can&#8217;t spend enough money to solve the problem,&#8221; McConnell said, noting that businesses unable to operate also won&#8217;t be paying taxes.
&#8220;Let&#8217;s weigh this very carefully because the future of our country in terms of the amount of debt that we&#8217;re adding up is a matter of genuine concern,&#8221; he added.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed a $450 billion emergency aid bill, close on the heels of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act that passed in late March, before Congress went on hiatus. The CARES Act, though the first named coronavirus relief bill, was actually the third such legislation; the first two cost $8 billion and $104 billion, respectively.
Initially, McConnell wanted a simple, $250 billion cash injection for the PPP, passed by unanimous consent, and with no frills. Democrats objected, demanding that any emergency relief package also include suffering hospitals, and put minority- and female-owned business at the front of the line for further loans. The package ballooned into a half billion dollar monster &#8212; a monster McConnell now believes should preclude a fourth bill, anticipated in Congress at the end of this month.
Pelosi, who pushed the add-ons to the PPP bill, is already drafting the fourth coronavirus relief package &#8212; an estimated $1.1 trillion bill &#8212; and had hoped to bring it to the floor in April, as soon as Congress returns from recess.
&#8220;Pelosi said it&#8217;s clear the next tranche of relief funds should be an expansion of the massive $2 trillion package the president signed into law last week — more money to aid states, cities and small businesses, expand unemployment benefits and another round of direct cash payments for Americans,&#8221; <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/491201-pelosi-wants-fourth-coronavirus-relief-bill-brought-to-house-floor-this-month">The Hill reported earlier in April</a>.
McConnell now says that&#8217;s not happening: &#8220;Unless we get our economy up and running again, there&#8217;s not any way we can spend enough to continue to prop up the country.&#8221;
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">subscriber</a>.

McConnell Halts Fourth Coronavirus Relief Package, Warns About Growing Debt

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) applauded Democrats on Tuesday for abandoning their opposition to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) after taking &#8220;12 days to agree to a deal that contains essentially nothing that Republicans ever opposed.&#8221;
&#8220;Democrats, led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), have been blocking a $250 billion cash infusion into the emptied $350 billion program, resisting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) efforts to get the emergency funding measure passed by unanimous consent,&#8221; The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/schumer-says-a-deal-has-been-reached-on-funding-the-paycheck-protection-act-but-no-vote-yet">reported</a> earlier on Tuesday. &#8220;Pelosi and Schumer want major funding boosts for Democratic special interests, including schools and hospitals (which just received a funding boost in the CARES act), and guarantees that minority and female business owners will receive preferential treatment from banks dispensing the loans.&#8221;
In a statement, McConnell said that he was &#8220;encouraged&#8221; by the move from Democrats, noting that Republicans never wanted the program shut down.
“Republicans never wanted this crucial program for workers and small businesses to shut down. We tried to pass additional funding a week before it lapsed,&#8221; McConnell said. &#8220;But Democratic leaders blocked the money and spent days trying to negotiate extraneous issues that were never on the table. I am grateful our colleagues have walked away from those demands and will finally let Congress act.&#8221;
“This bipartisan agreement will provide more than $320 billion in additional funding for the Paycheck Protection Program, which is already helping millions of small-business employees receive paychecks instead of pink slips,&#8221; McConnell continued. &#8220;This is even more money than Senate Republicans first requested. At our request, there will now be a special focus on community banks and credit unions. Thanks to the hard work of colleagues such as Senator Collins and Senator Rubio, there will also be $60 billion more for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, and because of the hard work of Senator Roberts, Senator Daines, and our other colleagues from rural states, it will be clear that farmers and ranchers are eligible.&#8221;
“In the week-plus while our Democratic colleagues delayed the urgent PPP funds, additional federal help for hospitals and healthcare providers became urgent as well,&#8221; McConnell concluded. &#8220;Republicans have always supported more medical funding as soon as necessary and I am proud this package will provide roughly $75 billion more to fund hospitals and healthcare providers in this crisis. Thanks to Chairman Alexander and Senator Blunt, there is also an additional $25 billion for state-led COVID-19 testing plans and for research, development, and other testing support from key agencies such as the CDC and the NIH.&#8221;
In a statement on the Senate floor, McConnell said: &#8220;It&#8217;s unfortunate that it took our Democratic colleagues 12 days to agree to a deal that contains essentially nothing that Republicans ever opposed. In my view, it&#8217;s indefensible that main street small businesses and their workers had their assistance for partisan leverage. That was the word of choice for one leading House Democrat. Leverage. The American people cannot be political leverage. So, I&#8217;m glad that we&#8217;re now poised to move ahead. Now, let&#8217;s just get this done, let&#8217;s move ahead and get it done for the American people.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I’m proud of Congress’s new bipartisan agreement. I am just sorry that Democrats shut down emergency support for Main Street in a search for partisan “leverage” that never materialized.
It’s time to move forward together and get this done for the American people. <a href="https://t.co/cUkQU0MT9P">pic.twitter.com/cUkQU0MT9P</a>
&mdash; Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1252704848497315840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The move from Democrats came one day after the Trump campaign <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/brutal-ad-devastates-pelosi-over-elitist-attitude-while-americans-suffer">released</a> a brutal campaign ad slamming Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">subscriber</a>.

US-HEALTH-VIRUS-CONGRESS

Democrats Abandon Opposition To Helping Small Businesses After Using Americans As ‘Leverage,’ McConnell Says

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Tuesday that Republicans and Democrats have reached a &#8220;tentative deal&#8221; to extend funding for the Paycheck Protection Program &#8212; the forgivable-loan program for small businesses that ran out of money late last week.
Democrats, led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), have been blocking a $250 billion cash infusion into the emptied $350 billion program, resisting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell&#8217;s (R-KY) efforts to get the emergency funding measure passed by unanimous consent. Pelosi and Schumer want major funding boosts for Democratic special interests, including schools and hospitals (which just received a funding boost in the CARES act), and guarantees that minority and female business owners will receive preferential treatment from banks dispensing the loans.
Schumer told CNN Tuesday morning that negotiations with the White House have resulted in a tentative agreement and only detail work on the bill remains before it can pass without objection.
The groups &#8220;came to an agreement on just about every issue,&#8221; Schumer said, <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2020/04/21/coronavirus-aid-deal-to-pass-senate-tuesday-schumer-says/?utm_source=&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=newsletters&amp;utm_content=04/21/2020">per Roll Call</a>, referring to discussions between House and Senate Democrats and Trump administration officials &#8212; specifically Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who has been placed in charge of getting most financial items in the CARES act funded.
&#8220;There is still a few more i’s to dot and t’s to cross, but we have a deal and I believe we’ll pass it today,” Schumer added.
The deal, it seems, will grant some measure of the Democrats&#8217; agenda, setting aside $60 billion of the emergency cash infusion for &#8220;community banks&#8221; and other financial institutions that serve the &#8220;unbanked,&#8221; so that female- and minority-owned businesses will have access to the forgivable loans.
The price of the package &#8212; once quoted at $250 billion &#8212; will nearly double, according to sources on the Hill. The final bill may have a price tag as high as $460 billion.
&#8220;Of that figure $360 billion would be for small-business relief, with most going to the so-called Paycheck Protection Program, which forgives loans for up to two months&#8217; eligible expenses. Within that total $50 billion is for a separate Small Business Administration disaster loan program that provides money directly to eligible firms,&#8221; Roll Call reports. &#8220;Another $100 billion would go towards health care expenses, including $75 billion for hospitals and other providers. The remaining $25 billion would be used to establish a COVID-19 testing program.&#8221;
Republicans do appear to have won at least one concession from Democrats: there will be no handout to state and local governments, some of whom were planning on using the money to address financial concerns other than those related to the coronavirus. Illinois, for example, was pushing for an additional check from the Federal government that it could use to pay off some of its mounting debt.
Even if both sides settle on a bill Tuesday, House Democratic leadership says the earliest a vote could come would be Thursday, largely because not all House Democrats are on board with the compromise bill: &#8220;Democratic leaders plan to call members back to Washington for a recorded vote due to likely objections to passing the measure by unanimous consent.&#8221;
Progressive Democrats, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) object to the bill on principle, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/ocasio-cortez-house-progressives-criticize-interim-coronavirus-bill-n1187981">according to NBC News,</a> and fear that they might be giving away &#8220;leverage&#8221; if the relief package does not include handouts to cities and states.
The Daily Wire, headed by bestselling author and popular podcast host Ben Shapiro, is a leading provider of conservative news, cutting through the mainstream media’s rhetoric to provide readers the most important, relevant, and engaging stories of the day. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">subscriber</a>.

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Mitch McConnell

Ann Coulter Calls Mitch McConnell ‘Broken-Down Old Man,’ Calls For His Defeat In November

Democrats Block Republican Police Reform Bill, Kill Hope Of Passing Legislation Amid Protests

Protesters Chanting ‘No Justice, No Sleep’ Outside Mitch McConnell’s House

Bush Condemns ‘Brutal Suffocation’ Of George Floyd, Says ‘Lasting Justice Will Only Come By Peaceful Means’

McConnell Blasts House Dems For ‘Precedent-Breaking’ Rule Change: ‘Never-Ending Spring Break’

Report: McConnell Against Extension For Enhanced Unemployment Benefits

WATCH: McConnell On Investigating Democrats: ‘We Intend To Get Those Answers’

Trump Presses McConnell To Pursue ‘Obamagate,’ Wants Senate Investigation

McConnell: There’s No Pressure To Negotiate On Pelosi Relief Package

Mitch McConnell: ‘President Obama Should Have Kept His Mouth Shut’ About Trump

Nancy Pelosi Drafts $750 Billion State Bailout Bill, Republicans Not Invited To Collaborate

‘Think Big’: Pelosi Demands Coronavirus Relief Wish Lists From Dems, Will Forge Ahead On Bill Without Republican Input

Business Owner: Paycheck Protection Program Kept 120 Special Needs Workers Employed

McConnell: Remark On Not Bailing Out States About State’s Past Decisions, Not Related To Pandemic

Baier Rips Pelosi For Falsely Blaming McConnell For PPP Delay: ‘Stop There’

Mitch McConnell Slams States Looking To Use Coronavirus Relief As A Bailout: They Should Go Bankrupt

WATCH: Nancy Pelosi Claims REPUBLICANS Stalled Small Business Relief Bill

McConnell Halts Fourth Coronavirus Relief Package, Warns About Growing Debt

Democrats Abandon Opposition To Helping Small Businesses After Using Americans As ‘Leverage,’ McConnell Says

Schumer Says A Deal Has Been Reached On Funding The Paycheck Protection Act But No Vote Yet

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Mitch McConnell

Ann Coulter Calls Mitch McConnell ‘Broken-Down Old Man,’ Calls For His Defeat In November

Democrats Block Republican Police Reform Bill, Kill Hope Of Passing Legislation Amid Protests

Protesters Chanting ‘No Justice, No Sleep’ Outside Mitch McConnell’s House

Bush Condemns ‘Brutal Suffocation’ Of George Floyd, Says ‘Lasting Justice Will Only Come By Peaceful Means’

McConnell Blasts House Dems For ‘Precedent-Breaking’ Rule Change: ‘Never-Ending Spring Break’

Report: McConnell Against Extension For Enhanced Unemployment Benefits

WATCH: McConnell On Investigating Democrats: ‘We Intend To Get Those Answers’

Trump Presses McConnell To Pursue ‘Obamagate,’ Wants Senate Investigation

McConnell: There’s No Pressure To Negotiate On Pelosi Relief Package

Mitch McConnell: ‘President Obama Should Have Kept His Mouth Shut’ About Trump

Nancy Pelosi Drafts $750 Billion State Bailout Bill, Republicans Not Invited To Collaborate

‘Think Big’: Pelosi Demands Coronavirus Relief Wish Lists From Dems, Will Forge Ahead On Bill Without Republican Input

Business Owner: Paycheck Protection Program Kept 120 Special Needs Workers Employed

McConnell: Remark On Not Bailing Out States About State’s Past Decisions, Not Related To Pandemic

Baier Rips Pelosi For Falsely Blaming McConnell For PPP Delay: ‘Stop There’

Mitch McConnell Slams States Looking To Use Coronavirus Relief As A Bailout: They Should Go Bankrupt

WATCH: Nancy Pelosi Claims REPUBLICANS Stalled Small Business Relief Bill

McConnell Halts Fourth Coronavirus Relief Package, Warns About Growing Debt

Democrats Abandon Opposition To Helping Small Businesses After Using Americans As ‘Leverage,’ McConnell Says

Schumer Says A Deal Has Been Reached On Funding The Paycheck Protection Act But No Vote Yet

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