Hours after legislation was blocked to increase direct payments in coronavirus stimulus legislation to $ 2000, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill to approve the larger checks, but only if Congress passed two other demands of President Donald Trump.
If the price for the checks is $ 2,000, McConnell’s bill would set up a commission to investigate the 2020 election, which Trump continues to uphold without any evidence being fraudulent and he was actually re-elected.
The legislation would also repeal the law, known as Article 230, which protects social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook from lawsuits over user-posted content. Trump has lashed out at the companies for branding or deleting fake postings by him and his allies.
Trump mentioned both of these issues, as well as his demand for the higher stimulus payments when he signed the $ 2.3 billion government spending and coronavirus stimulus legislation a week after it cleared Congress.
“The Senate will begin the process for a vote that raises checks to $ 2,000, repeals Article 230 and launches an investigation into voter fraud,” Trump said Sunday. “Big Tech should not be protected from Article 230. Voter fraud must be resolved.”
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McConnell’s legislation has no chance of getting the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate, let alone the Democratic-controlled House that passed the CASH LAW on Monday. The measure simply increased payments to $ 2,000 from $ 600, as Trump called for.
The Senate leader on Tuesday refused to pass the bill passed by the House, even though it has the support of all 48 Democratic senators and is close to picking up enough Republicans to reach the 60-vote threshold.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York called McConnell’s alternative “a cynical game” and “a blatant attempt to deprive Americans of a $ 2000 survival check.”
“Senator McConnell knows how to make a $ 2,000 survival check and he knows how to kill it,” Schumer said. “If Senator McConnell tries to upload the dual Cash Act enforced by the House with unrelated, biased provisions that will do absolutely nothing to help struggling families across the country, it will not go through the house and can it does not become law.
McConnell may decide to cast a vote on the House Bill, his own legislation, or not one.
Dozens of judges, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have dismissed Trump campaign cases, saying they had no evidence of wrongdoing. Even McConnell acknowledged Biden’s victory after the Electoral College cast its ballots on December 14.
“You have election officials across the country and national security officials who say it was a clean slate and that the attempt to conduct an unnecessary investigation belongs only to the base and the president,” said David Vance, a spokesman for the watchdog group. Common Cause.
Trump also claimed that he lost the popular vote in 2016 due to illegal votes and in May 2017 set up a commission to prove it. The panel was dissolved the following January without finding evidence of fraud.
“To stop you from earning $ 2,000, Mitch McConnell is demanding a ‘commission’ to track down lies about the election Trump lost and attack democracy,” Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-9th District, said on Twitter. “It’s a shame. The depravity of Republican leaders has no bottom. ”
Jonathan D. Salant can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JDSalant.
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