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- President Donald Trump on Tuesday rejected a massive Covid financial aid package approved by Congress, calling it “a disgrace.”
- Trump dropped the bomb through a pre-recorded statement made at the White House and posted on Twitter.
- Trump said he would refuse to accept the bill as is and demanded changes.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday rejected a massive Covid financial aid package approved by Congress, calling it “a disgrace” in an act of risky politics less than a month before he is due to leave office and when millions of Americans are suffering. the consequences of the pandemic.
Trump dropped the bomb through a pre-recorded statement made at the White House and posted on Twitter.
It came just a day after his Republicans and Democrats finally overwhelmingly agreed to a $ 900 billion bill intended to launch a lifeline for businesses and individuals struggling to stay afloat.
In his speech, Trump said he would refuse to accept the bill as is and demanded changes, in particular a large increase in the proposed direct payments of $ 600 to less well-off Americans.
“I’m asking Congress to amend this bill and raise the ridiculously low $ 600 to $ 2,000, or $ 4,000 for a couple,” he said, referring to the aid checks.
Leveraging his nationalist “America First” brand, Trump also criticized measures added to the bill during complex negotiations that would provide funding for projects that benefit American partners abroad and other non-Covid elements such as the environment.
“It really is a shame,” he said. “I also ask Congress to immediately get rid of the unnecessary and wasteful elements of this legislation, and to send me an appropriate bill.”
Trump has yet to receive the bill and did not explicitly say he would not sign. If he really vetoed the package, Congress would almost certainly quash that quickly, given the bipartisan support.
In what is expected to be just one part of a series of presidential pardons and commutations issued in the last days of the administration, the White House also announced Tuesday night that 20 people had been selected.
Among them, two convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation into Trump campaign ties to Moscow and four men convicted in connection with the mass killing of 17 Iraqi civilians.
The Covid package is wrapped in a $ 2.3 billion “coronabus” bill, nearly 5,600 pages, which includes the so-called omnibus bill to fund the government for next year.
An override of the veto by Congress would mark an embarrassing defeat for Trump, who spends his final weeks in office before Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20 by pursuing unprecedented attempts to try to have the results overturned electoral.
However, until you have the bill on your desk, you won’t have to veto it.
And Trump’s motives for fighting Congress are intertwined with his extraordinary ongoing fight to overturn the Nov. 3 election.
Despite the fact that courts across the country rejected his unfounded claims of fraud, he has enough allies on the GOP right-wing, and devoted supporters among some voters, to continue trying to derail the traditionally smooth presidential transition.
He lobbied again Tuesday in a second lengthy video statement from the White House, saying he won “overwhelmingly.”
His defiance now puts the Republican Party in a bind, forcing lawmakers who angered him by declaring Biden the true winner to choose whether to dare to challenge him further and risk ruining Covid relief.
Democratic leaders immediately jumped in to insist their party had been in favor of higher individual aid payments from the start.
“We spent months trying to get $ 2,000 checks, but the Republicans blocked it,” Top Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said on Twitter.
“Trump needs to sign the bill to help the people and keep the government open and we are happy to pass more help that Americans need. Maybe Trump can finally be useful and get Republicans not to block him again.
“At last, the president accepted $ 2,000; the Democrats are ready to take this to the floor this week with unanimous consent. Let’s do it!” said Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats.
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