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WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, the bipartisan stimulus talks broke down, abruptly ended by a series of outraged tweets from President Trump. On Wednesday, there was a glimmer of hope when he suggested he might reconsider, with top negotiators privately haggling over the phone over possible legislation.
By Thursday, the president made a complete turn and suggested that there might be a deal at hand, then turned around and ridiculed California’s President Nancy Pelosi, the leading Democrat in the discussions, as “Crazy Nancy.” Pelosi, for her part, scoffed at the announcement Friday of legislation establishing a commission to advise Congress on whether the president should be forcibly removed from office for mental or physical impairments.
As tens of millions of Americans, schools and businesses watched the spate of events that could determine whether they would receive another infusion of desperately needed pandemic relief, confusion reigned in Washington over whether an elusive stimulus commitment was dead, alive, on life support. or somewhere. between.
What became clear was that political interests, which have long jeopardized a bipartisan deal, have only intensified. And collateral damage across the country has continued to rise in the absence of federal funding, with more than 800,000 Americans filing new applications for state benefits, before adjusting for seasonal variations.
“The day-to-day discussion can be confusing for everyone,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Majority Leader and top Republican on Capitol Hill, told reporters at an event in Kentucky. “But we are still committed and we hope to find a way forward.”
Days earlier, McConnell had privately suggested to the president that Pelosi was demanding too much in talks and warned that her demands for a compromise would by definition be too costly for many Republicans to accept. The Washington Post reported on the conversation earlier.
Several moderate Republicans in both houses have criticized the end of the negotiations and urged the leaders to reach a compromise.
In separate appearances Thursday, Trump and Pelosi insisted the talks were continuing, with the president suggesting that negotiators were now discussing $ 1,200 stimulus controls in addition to a possible aid measure for airlines to prevent tens of thousands of workers. are suspended. or fired.
“I closed the talks two days ago because they weren’t working, now they are starting to work,” Trump told Fox Business. Ms. Pelosi said, “he wants it to happen, because it is so good for our country that we really need it.”
The speaker, for her part, ruled out voting on a separate aid package for airlines without a commitment that the Trump administration would accept a broader pandemic aid plan to help Americans in distress, stating that “ there is no position ”. single invoice without a larger invoice “.
It was also unclear whether a separate bill addressing airline relief would guarantee enough support in either chamber to reach the president’s desk. Two Republican senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, expressed concern about the possibility of voting on such legislation without debate or “adequate protections for taxpayers.”
“Nobody wants to see layoffs, but we have a responsibility to ensure that taxpayer resources are used appropriately and equitably,” the senators said in a statement.
Behind the scenes, private conversations between Pelosi, top Democrats and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin continued to offer the tantalizing prospect that a deal could be reached. But the speaker, her position reinforced by the president publicly taking credit for torpedoing the talks on Tuesday, made it clear to the administration that any deal would be on her terms. He said he had told Mr. Mnuchin that his willingness to consider an airline bailout measure depended on the management’s agreement with a broader stimulus plan.
With Trump largely disengaged from the negotiations, according to advisers on both sides, Mnuchin has long been seen as increasingly eager to reach a deal.
But Republicans, particularly in the Senate, are wary of how much Mnuchin has been willing to concede to Pelosi and the Democrats in previous negotiations and what they have been forced to accept in the coronavirus legislation. Trump’s decision to abruptly halt negotiations with a series of Twitter posts did little to bolster Mnuchin’s credibility, though Pelosi said the Treasury secretary claimed he knew ahead of time what the president was going to do.
“I said, did you know I was going to tweet? Did you know I was going to tweet that after you got engaged in months of negotiations with the Speaker of the House? he said at a news conference on Capitol Hill.
“We are happy to review what that independent bill would look like, as part of a larger bill, if there is a larger bill,” Pelosi said. “We are at the table; we want to continue the conversation. “
During a 40-minute phone call Thursday afternoon, Mnuchin told the speaker that the president was really interested in a broader package, Drew Hammill, his spokesman, wrote on Twitter. But even as they spoke, Alyssa Farah, the White House communications director, rejected that idea, telling reporters that the president was interested in a “thin” bill.
“The president trusts that the secretary speaks for the president,” Hammill said. tweeted.
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