A growing number of Republicans on Tuesday backed Donald Trump’s call to increase coronavirus relief payments to U.S. citizens from $ 600 to $ 2,000, although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the Democrats ’effort to pass the step quickly.
Trump’s party was riddled with turmoil and controversy over his demands to increase one-time scrutiny for Americans, a measure passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives Monday.
“$ 2000 for our greats, not $ 600!” Trump tweeted Tuesday, before using a racist term to describe Covid-19. “They have suffered a lot from the Chinese Virus !!!”
Some critics saw Trump’s move as an apparent return to his role as a populist foreigner and disrupter in the Washington establishment, and as tests of loyalty to strengthen his strength after he left offices.
His resignation has also threatened to split his party and create a legacy for McConnell, while Democrats – and Senator Bernie Sanders – see a renewed opportunity to surpass higher support.
Promoted by Trump, more Republicans on Tuesday abandoned their previous opposition to the higher sum and came over to the side of the president. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, seniors from Georgia who are opposed to tight races for re-election next week, tweeted for their support for payments of just $ 2,000. Loeffler told Fox News: “I have stood with the president 100% of the time. I am proud to do that and I have absolutely said that we need relief for Americans now and I will support that. “
Donald J. Trump
(@realDonaldTrump)Unless a Republican has a death wish, which is also the right thing to do, they have to approve the $ 2000 payments ASAP. NO $ 600! Also, delete Section 230 – Don’t let Big Tech steal our Country, and don’t let Democrats steal Presidential Election. Get sorry! https://t.co/GMotstu7OI
Senator Marco Rubio of Florida did the same, saying: “I agree with the president that more than millions of working – class families desperately need relief, which is why I supports $ 2,000 in direct payments. ” Republican member Josh Hawley has also expressed support.
The final passage of the Senate increase required 60 votes in the Senate and support from a dozen Republicans to give Trump an unlikely victory.
Georgia’s water flow could put a lot of pressure on McConnell’s thinking on whether such a vote should be allowed to go ahead.
As Trump played golf in Florida on Tuesday, minority leader Chuck Schumer claimed from the Senate floor: “In the richest country on earth, today’s bread lines stretch thousands. down on American highways. The quickest way to get money into Americans’ pockets is to return some of their tax debts from where they came from.
“Motivational studies of two thousand dollars could mean the difference between American families getting food for a few more weeks or going hungry. The difference between paying the rent or being kicked out of your home in which you have lived for years. It could buy valuable time for tens of millions of people as the vaccine gratefully makes its way across the country. “
Schumer demanded: “Will the Senate Republican stand against the House of Representatives, a Democratic majority in the Senate, and the president of their own party to block these $ 2,000 scrutiny from going out the door? “
McConnell objected, blocking the first consideration of the measure, but was about to come under growing pressure from Democrats and members of his own party to vote up or down. held this week.
For example, Sanders, an independent grandfather from Vermont, threatened to prevent McConnell from holding a separate vote Wednesday to get over Trump ‘s $ 740bn defense bill if the majority leader does not deliver.
“This week on the Senate floor Mitch McConnell wants to vote to get over Trump’s beast of the $ 740bn defense funding bill and then return home for the New Year,” Sanders said. “I’m going to protest until we get a vote on legislation to pay the working class just $ 2,000. “
The defense bill is going to the Senate after the House voted 322 to 87 to overthrow Trump’s main beast. This was the first time the second chamber of Congress had delivered such an allegation. Some 109 Republicans joined their Democratic counterparts to ensure a two-thirds majority required.
This provoked further anger and criticism from Trump against his own party. “Weak and tired Republican ‘leadership’ will allow the defense bill to pass,” he tweeted, complaining that the legislation will change the names of military bases that honor Confederate leaders and maintain defense. legal for large technical companies.
Trump has been less involved with Congress than previous presidents and stayed on the sidelines during months of negotiations over the $ 900bn coronavirus relief package, just to threaten to pull back his signature before reaching cave last Sunday.
But the current controversies seem to be tied to his settlement by abandoning his election case. He has fought against McConnell and others for recognizing Biden as president and has called on Republicans to raise protests when Congress gathers to ratify the outcome on Jan. 6. Some analysts have said it is less of a grip of power than a grip of attention by someone who sees media attention shift to Biden.
Trump tweeted: “… Can you imagine if the Republicans stole the Presidential Election from the Democrats – Hell would break out. Republican leadership just wants the slightest trace of aggression. Our leaders (not me, of course!) Are patient. They only know how to lose! “
Trump’s infamous behavior in the last weeks of his presidency has even lobbied media owner and longtime enemy Rupert Murdoch. His newspaper in the New York Post said in an editorial this week: “If you ask him to spend your last days in the office threatening to burn them out, then so be it. which you will remember. Not as a revolutionary, but as the anarchist who holds the game. “