Every day, new polls emerge showing Republicans in dire straits for the 2020 election. And not surprising: The economy is collapsing and the country is devastated by a devastating pandemic, events for which President Donald Trump is largely guilty.
But the stress of impending death is not focusing the minds of Republicans or encouraging them to unite. Instead, the pressure seems to be tearing them apart. And in their dysfunction, they may be ready to thwart the country’s best chances of mistaking the current devastation, further undermining its own electoral position before November.
Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) has been the subject of much internal scrutiny and discord, as multiple reports and public comments have revealed. Although she has sometimes sought the president’s favor, she recently broke up with her on key points, inspiring the wrath of her fierce advocates of Congress.
CNN reported that he became a target at Tuesday’s Republican conference:
House Republican Republican Party Speaker Liz Cheney of Wyoming was attacked by several Republicans in the House of Representatives during a conference meeting Tuesday morning for supporting Dr. Anthony Fauci and splitting with President Donald Trump on a variety of topics in recent months, three sources in the room told CNN. .
Members such as representatives Jim Jordan from Ohio, Matt Gaetz from Florida, Thomas Massie from Kentucky, Chip Roy from Texas, Andy Biggs from Arizona, Scott Perry from Pennsylvania and Ralph Norman from South Carolina intervened to file complaints against Cheney.
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During the conference meeting, Gaetz and Massie complained that Cheney supported a major challenge for Massie, the sources said. Jordan, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, listed areas where Cheney did not publicly agree with the President, signaling his resistance to Trump’s plan to withdraw troops in Germany and Afghanistan.
Roy hit Cheney for supporting Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, and complained that his Democratic opponent has retweeted some of Cheney’s tweets.
But the acrimony also spread to the public:
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) also released Cheney to the media.
“I mean, she tries to sabotage everything he tries to do in foreign policy, so I don’t know if she’s a good advocate for the president or not,” she told CNN.
He also said: “I don’t think it is good for the country.”
Meanwhile, divisions are forming over what to do with the upcoming coronavirus relief bill. In that sense, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) have been found on opposite sides.
James Hohmann of the Washington Post reported that Cruz was furious at Cotton’s defense for more expenses at a recent meeting, exclaiming, “What the hell are we doing?”
According to Axios, the main gap lies between Senate Republicans and the Trump White House.
“The Republican lunch in the Senate turned into chaos, several Republican lawmakers said, revealing that the White House and Republican senators remain separate on key priorities in the next economic package,” Alayna Treene reported. “White House officials said little, Senator Josh Hawley (Republican) told reporters. Instead, the senators used the time to express their disagreements. ‘There is a big difference of opinion,’ Hawley said.”
Once again, Paul publicly expressed his frustrations:
Democrats, on the other hand, remain united. The House of Representatives passed a $ 3 trillion spending law in May that the Senate and White House refused to go through.
“Republicans are in complete disarray,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), according to the Washington Post. “Totally incompetent. Totally in disarray. Totally at war with each other.”
CNBC reported Wednesday afternoon that the Republican Party is moving toward a possible passage of a bill that would expand expanded unemployment insurance in the country after it is supposed to expire this week, but at a dramatically reduced rate:
Republicans are considering extending the improved unemployment insurance benefit to a dramatically reduced level of $ 400 a month, or $ 100 a week, for the rest of the year, sources told CNBC.
Congress approved a $ 600 a week, or $ 2,400 a month, increase in unemployment benefits in March to deal with a wave of unemployment that had not been seen in decades as states closed their economies to combat the coronavirus pandemic. . The policy expires in late July as the unemployment rate in the US is above 11%, despite two strong months of job growth.
The Republican Party, which has not made a final decision on how it will develop unemployment insurance in a bill to be released this week, previously discussed extending the benefit to an additional $ 200 per week instead of $ 600. Democrats want it to the sum of $ 600 per week is available until at least next year.
This plan, it must be clear, would be disastrous. Many millions of people are still unemployed due to the initial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Many are desperate and just crawl as they are. Reducing your benefits by $ 2,000 a month, with the resurgence of the virus and the economy at risk of worsening, would be a brutal blow.
Even if Republicans finally agreed with Democrats and extended expanded unemployment of $ 600 a week (an unlikely scenario), observers expect the program to expire before it is renewed. This means that recipients would face a gap in the payments they have been receiving, which in itself could have a major impact on the economy.
And all this rancor, hesitation and lack of urgency is likely to be an electoral poison for the Republican Party. With a devastated economy and a virus out of control, the ruling party is likely to lose the White House and seats in Congress no matter what it does. But guaranteeing economic distress and continued uncertainty for millions of families as the country is trying to recover from financial collapse would be a spectacular form of Republican self-sabotage.
