McConnell: Pelosi, Schumer ‘Shenanigans’ Kept Coronavirus Aid from Happening Sooner

Monday on FNC’s “The Daily Briefing,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) attacked his Democrat counterparts, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), for what he deemed “shenanigans” in holding up COVID-19 relief funding.

McConnell told Fox News Channel’s Dana Perino the deal could have been made back in July.

“I said back in July what the country needed was a package roughly a trillion dollars focused on kids in school, small businesses, health care providers, and direct cash payments,” he said. “We tried to pass — we started advocating that in July and August. The talks were unproductive. So, I essentially put that bill on the floor of the Senate in both September and October. Not a single Democrat supported it. Their view was: Give us everything we want, or we won’t give you anything.”

“Well, so, it’s noteworthy that, at the end, they finally gave us what we could have agreed to back in July,” McConnell continued. “I think what held it up was, they did not want to do anything before the presidential election. I think they felt that that would disadvantage the president. But, look, we have finally got it done. We got it done in exactly the same amounts and with the same configuration that we would have been able to do back in the summer, but for all the intervening election shenanigans on the side of the speaker and Democratic Leader — Schumer.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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