GOP congressman says Trump wants virus relief 'because he has an election'

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) complained on Thursday that Donald Trump was motivated by an “election in November,” and that is making it difficult for Republicans to be unified in negotiations over virus relief.

Speaking to the “Guy Benson Show” for a radio interview, Kinzinger said, because of Trump, Republicans may concede to Democrats and pass something because “the pressure’s too great.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have been involved in back-and-forth negotiations with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows but have yet to come to an agreement.

House Democrats a second round of virus relief in May, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to take up the bill. Led by McConnell, Republicans allowed the $600 supplement to unemployment benefits to expire at the end of July, even as unemployment remains high at 10.2%.

Since then, the Trump administration has been stuck in negotiations with Senate Republicans.

At the same time, Trump has floated the idea of using an executive order to pass some form of relief, though his power to do so is limited.

From the Aug. 6 edition of Fox News Radio’s “The Guy Benson Show”:

ADAM KINZINGER: The problem with the Republican side is you’ve got the president out there saying he wants to do all this stuff. He wants to keep the unemployment up, he’ll do it by executive order, he wants to send a stimulus check, he wants to do all this because he has an election in November.

 

So how in the world then can we negotiate from a unified position?

 

I think Pelosi looks at that and says, if they’re own — if the president of their party is saying that exact stuff, we can wait them out until the pressure’s too great. I worry about this, because I think we need to pass something, but we need to do it responsibly because this has implications beyond November and frankly beyond even this year of the virus.

 

It has implications for generations.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.