Covid relief cash clash
Dems hit back as Trump puts stimulus talks on hold until after the poll
WASHINGTON: American voters were handed a stark choice by their President: vote for me, or forget about any pandemic stimulus payouts.
Donald Trump made COVID support a key election issue when he slammed shut talks on economic relief, and his opponents immediately said his decision was due to the
powerful cocktail of drugs he is being treated with.
With his doctors reporting he was symptom-free for his first day home from hospital, Mr Trump sent markets tumbling with his tweet that there would be no agreement on funding until after “I win” the November 3 election.
“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” Mr Trump tweeted. He added: “Crazy Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left Democrats were just playing ‘games’ with the desperately needed Workers Stimulus Payments. They just wanted to take care of Democrat failed, high crime, Cities and States. They were never in it to help the workers, and they never will be!”
House speaker Nancy Pelosi was talking to the Democrat caucus when the news broke and reportedly said: “Steroids have an impact on your thinking.” She later released an official statement, saying: “Clearly, the White House is in complete disarray.”
The move came as Washington DC’s coronavirus cluster spread, with more White House staffers testing positive, the Joint Chiefs of Staff quarantining after being exposed to an infected admiral and 123 workers on Capitol Hill either being diagnosed or testing positive for the disease.
It came as former first lady Michelle Obama attacked Mr Trump’s administration as “racist” in an online video. “They’re stoking fears about Black and Brown Americans, lying about how the minorities will destroy the suburbs — and they are pinning it all on what has been an overwhelmingly peaceful movement for racial solidarity,” she said.