‘60 Minutes’ Calls Out Pelosi for Obstructing COVID Relief: 'You Held Out for 8 Months'
“60 Minutes” host Leslie Stahl held House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s feet to the fire on Friday for delaying COVID-19 relief legislation for months, apparently for purely political reasons.
“You yourself are not known as a person who compromises,” Stahl said.
“I compromise. We want to get the job done. I’m mischaracterized by the Republicans that way. But that’s a tactic that they use,” Pelosi responded.
Stahl did not allow that answer to stand.
“What about the COVID relief package that was held up eight months?” she asked.
“But that was their obstruction,” the speaker answered. “Their obstruction.”
“No, yours too,” Stahl fired back. “You held out for eight months.”
CBS’s Lesley Stahl calls out Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on 60 Minutes for refusing to compromise with Republicans on coronavirus relief:
“You, yourself are not known as a person who compromises. … You held out for EIGHT months!” pic.twitter.com/712cUvBQH7
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 11, 2021
Pelosi went on to argue that Democrats held up the bill because they wanted more funding for first responders, health care workers and teachers.
Stahl redirected her yet again, noting that a member of the Democratic caucus said holding up the relief bill was a “mistake” and made the party look like obstructionists.
“Well, I don’t remember anybody saying that, and they may have,” the speaker snapped back. “But it wasn’t a mistake and I would not — and nobody expects me to — to support something that solidifies injustice in our country.”
In May, House Democrats passed a $3.4 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, which included a $1 trillion bailout for state and local governments.
Pelosi knew that was a nonstarter for Republicans, who didn’t want to fund a blue-state bailout of pension funds and other liabilities that predate and have nothing to do with the pandemic.
Republicans passed their own legislation in the Senate, which replenished the Paycheck Protection Program and continued the enhanced unemployment benefits and other COVID-19 related funding.
GOP lawmakers wanted to help the people most in need and cap spending at about $1 trillion.
Last month, Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed into law an omnibus spending bill that included $900 billion in COVID-19 relief.
So Pelosi had been playing politics and just didn’t want to give the president a win before November’s election.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer highlighted this fact in an October interview.
The offer on the table at that time was $1.8 billion, which Pelosi had refused.
Blitzer pressed the speaker on a letter she sent to her Democratic colleagues in the House.
“Let me read a line from the letter you wrote: ‘The President only wants his name on the check to go out before Election Day and for the market to go up,’” he said.
“Is that what this is all about, not allowing the president to take credit if there’s a deal that will help millions of Americans right now?” Blitzer asked.
“No, I don’t care about that. He’s not that important. But let me say this with all due respect, with all due respect, and you know we’ve known each other a long time, you really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Pelosi answered.
She then proceeded to explain how Democrats had come down from $3.4 trillion to $2.2 trillion.
Blitzer assured her that he understood that.
“I just want to point out $1.8 trillion, $1.8 trillion is a lot of money,” he said. “The American people need that money ASAP, because they’re suffering right now. And I’m not saying it’s perfect.”
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, as they say,” Blitzer later added.
Pelosi closed the interview on a snarky note, saying, “Thank you for your sensitivity to our constituents’ needs.”
Pelosi snarks at end of interview: Thank you for our sensitivity to our constituents’ needs.”
Wolf: “I do because I see them on the streets begging for food.”
Pelosi: “Have you fed them? We feed them.” pic.twitter.com/MJjwd4TUe9
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) October 13, 2020
“I am sensitive to them because I see them on the street begging for food, begging for money, Madam Speaker, thank you so much,” he replied.
Pelosi would not allow the CNN host to end the interview on that note.
“Have you fed them? We feed them, we feed them,” she said.
Blitzer responded, “We’ll continue this conversation down the road for sure,” and then CNN cut to commercial.
Pelosi’s “we feed them” remark was revealing, showing that she views taxpayers’ money as her own.
Every now and then, someone in the establishment media actually presses left-wing politicians to account for their actions.
Based on Pelosi’s response, it’s not something she is used to or expects, but it is something the American people deserve and should happen more often.
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