President Donald Trump on Tuesday rejected a massive Covid
economic relief package passed by Congress, branding it “a disgrace” in an act
of political brinkmanship less than a month before he must leave office and
when millions of Americans are suffering fallout from the pandemic.
Trump dropped the bombshell via a pre-recorded statement
made in the White House and sent out on Twitter.
It came just a day after his Republicans and the Democrats
finally agreed overwhelmingly to a $900 billion bill meant to throw a lifeline
to businesses and people struggling to keep heads above water.
In his address, Trump said he would refuse to accept the bill as it is and demanded changes, notably a big increase in the proposed $600 direct payments to less well-off Americans.
“I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the
ridiculously low $600 to $2,000, or $4,000 for a couple,” he said, referring to
relief checks.
Tapping into his nationalist “America First” brand, Trump
also castigated measures added onto the bill during complex negotiations that
would provide funding for projects benefiting US partners abroad and other
non-Covid related items like the environment.
“It really is a disgrace,” he said. “I’m also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation, and just send me a suitable bill.”
Trump has not yet received the bill and he did not
explicitly say he would not sign. If he actually vetoed the package, Congress
would almost certainly quickly override that, given the bipartisan support.
In what is widely expected to be only a portion of a slew of
presidential pardons and commutations issued in the dying days of the
administration, the White House also announced late Tuesday that 20 people had
been selected.
They included two convicted in special counsel Robert
Mueller’s Russia probe into Trump campaign ties to Moscow and four men
convicted in connection with the mass killing of at least 14 Iraqi civilians.
– Power struggle –
The Covid package is wrapped into a $2.3 trillion, almost
5,600-page “coronabus” bill that includes a so-called omnibus bill to fund the
government for the coming year.
A congressional override of a veto would mark an
embarrassing defeat for Trump, who is spending his final weeks in office before
the January 20 inauguration of Democrat Joe Biden by pursuing unprecedented
attempts to try and get the election results overturned.
However, until he has the bill on his desk he has no need to
veto.
And Trump’s motives in picking the fight with Congress are
intertwined with his extraordinary ongoing struggle to overturn the November 3
election.
Despite courts across the country rejecting his baseless
claims of fraud, he has enough allies on the right of the Republican party —
and a devoted following among some voters — to keep trying to derail the
traditionally smooth presidential transition.
He pushed again Tuesday in a second lengthy video statement
from the White House, claiming that he won in a “landslide.”
His challenge now puts the Republican party in a bind,
forcing lawmakers who angered him by declaring Biden the true winner to choose
whether they dare defy him further and risk wrecking Covid relief.
Democratic leaders pounced immediately to insist that their
party had been in favor of higher individual relief payments from the start.
“We spent months trying to secure $2000 checks but
Republicans blocked it,” said top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer on Twitter.
“Trump needs to sign the bill to help people and keep the
government open and we’re glad to pass more aid Americans need. Maybe Trump can
finally make himself useful and get Republicans not to block it again.”
“At last, the President has agreed to $2,000 — Democrats are
ready to bring this to the Floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it!”
said Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, which is
Democrat-controlled.
Senator Bernie Sanders, who sought the Democratic nomination
for president on a progressive platform, also joined in, tweeting that he
“first introduced a bill to provide a $2,000 direct payment with
@SenKamalaHarris & @EdMarkey 7 months ago.”
“Now, Mr. President, get Mitch McConnell and your Republican
friends to stop opposing it and we can provide working class Americans with
$2,000.”
AFP
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