House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continued to politicize the coronavirus crisis with another theatrical performance at her weekly press conference.
The California Democrat vowed that she was “not sticking around” to negotiate with Republicans on a bill to address the government response to COVID-19, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on Wednesday.
Q: Would House Dems stay if compromise isn’t reached on the coronavirus response bill in the next 24-48 hours?@SpeakerPelosi: “We don’t need 48 hours, we need to just make a decision to help families right now… I’m not sticking around bc they don’t want to agree to language” pic.twitter.com/6B2V3cPxk6
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 12, 2020
With a bill scheduled to come to the House floor on Thursday, Republicans have expressed concerns over the Families First Coronavirus Response Act unveiled by Democrats as it does not address some of the concerns noted by President Trump.
What does it say about the radical Democratic Party that Pelosi would bring up a bill to limit the President’s ability to control disease carriers from coming into the United States in the middle of a pandemic. How many Americans is Pelosi willing to sacrifice to her ideology.
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) March 12, 2020
But Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have been pressing for the bill to pass despite their hold up of the recent vote on the funding bill to allegedly run ads against the GOP on Super Tuesday. Now with a recess looming for lawmakers, Pelosi declared she would not delay legislation and refused to wait another day to work with Republicans on a compromise bill.
“We are addressing the realities of family life in America, putting families first,” she told reporters during a news conference Thursday morning.
“We don’t need 48 hours, we need to just make a decision to help families right now… I’m not sticking around because they don’t want to agree to language,” she said in response to a question about whether House Democrats would stay if a compromise on the coronavirus response bill is not reached in the next 24-48 hours.
But the Senate soon took the wind out of Pelosi’s sails as it was announced later Thursday that recess had been cancelled.
Good. Tell pelosi see can’t go on her vacation to plot with he fellow democrats
— Lynn (@potenzl) March 12, 2020
The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. applauded the decision and called on House Democrats to quit their “petty political maneuvering.”
Good. Happy to see McConnell cancel the Senate’s recess. Pelosi and House Dems need to do the same & stop the petty political maneuvering and get to work on Coronavirus with Republicans in a bipartisan fashion. https://t.co/8vN1stVVp2
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 12, 2020
Despite her grandstanding, Trump has already accused Pelosi of trying to politicize the coronavirus outbreak with criticism of his response, dismissing comments by the “incompetent” Democrat during a news conference at the White House last month.
“I think she’s not thinking about the country,” Trump said in response to Pelosi saying he did not know ehat he was talking about on the disease. “Instead of making a statement like that, she should be saying we have to work together because we have a big problem, potentially. And maybe it’s going to be a very little problem – I hope that it’s going to be a very little problem – but we have to work together.”
Trump boasts swift action against coronavirus, blasts Pelosi for politicizing and ‘trying to create panic’ https://t.co/b0egrTxfM8
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) February 27, 2020
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy revealed the “dirty little secret” about Democrats who played politics on the coronavirus spending bill.
“She withheld the bill last week. You know why? So the DCCC could run ads against seven Republicans,” he told Fox News host Laura Ingraham last week. “They actually took the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee and spent money, went into the seven Republican seats and campaigned against them about the coronavirus when she’s the Speaker of the House instead of putting America First she put politics first and held the bill from coming to the floor.”
What a scam—Speaker Pelosi held up the vote on coronavirus funding so that her campaign team could run ads against Republicans for Super Tuesday.
Instead of putting America first, she is putting politics first. pic.twitter.com/ws0nn0hUXP
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) March 3, 2020
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is apparently opposed to the Democrats’ Families First measure, tweeting that a draft of the legislation was “off-base.”
Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi’s first draft from late last night was off-base. It does not focus immediate relief on affected Americans. It proposes new bureaucracy that would only delay assistance. It wanders into policy areas that are not related to the pressing issues at hand.
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) March 12, 2020
But the Speaker seems to have only one play that she repeats and she earned plenty of criticism for it after her press conference on Thursday.
“Get your s*** together. All of you. I know brinksmanship and demagoguery is the default setting, but c’mon,” Fox News contributor and Townhall editor Guy Benson tweeted.
“Total embarrassment that Pelosi refuses to stay in DC & work with the GOP Senate to pass a bipartisan Coronavirus compromise bill, all because she doesn’t want to cancel recess,” GOP strategist Andrew Surabian tweeted. “Dems/Republicans should be working together, not playing petty political games like Pelosi is here.”
Other Twitter users slammed the partisan politics and applauded the Senate decision to cancel recess.
Why not just respond: Yes. We are here until it’s done.
— AmericanEagle1A (@eagle1_a) March 12, 2020
@SpeakerPelosi, we pay you to stick around and get the job done. You may not like the people you have to deal with- but that is part of the job. Both sides can be difficult, including YOU. Stay and get it done or #Resign.
— Amy Noelle (@NoelleTMD) March 12, 2020
Drafted a bill in private and refuses to work with the opposing party during a health crisis.
Stop the damn partisan shit right now @SpeakerPelosi #DemExit2020
— Ronna Burgundy Agrees to Disagree? (@KathyPoteau) March 12, 2020
@SpeakerPelosi continues to play politics instead of taking action to actually help Americans. She’s disgusting.
— Lake Surfer (@SurferLake) March 12, 2020
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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