President Trump on Thursday laid the blame for the stalled coronavirus stimulus negotiations on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying he is ready to sign a stimulus bill but Pelosi “doesn’t want to give the money.”
“The problem you have is Nancy Pelosi. She couldn’t care less about the worker. She couldn’t care less about our people,” Trump said during Thursday night’s town hall, which was hosted by NBC News at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.
“And we should have a stimulus, and I want a stimulus,” Trump continued. “The Republicans would approve a stimulus. The problem is she doesn’t want to do it because she thinks it’s bad for her election. The fact is, she’s wrong because people know she’s in our way, she’s not approving it.”
Negotiations for a fifth stimulus bill to offset the economic damage of the coronavirus are ongoing between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
House Democrats have passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill. Trump has indicated that his administration might be willing to support a more expensive bill than the $1.8 trillion bill Republicans have offered, although a number of Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have balked at the high price tag .
“Nancy Pelosi, we are ready to sign and pass stimulus, but she’s got to approve it,” Trump said.
“This was not our people’s fault. This was China’s fault. And she’s penalizing our people. I’m ready to sign a big beautiful stimulus,” the president said.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is participating in a competing town hall event in Philadelphia hosted by ABC.
Trump and Biden were originally scheduled to debate face to face in a town hall event Thursday night, but the debate was changed to a virtual format after Trump was diagnosed with the coronavirus earlier this month. Trump then backed out of the debate, saying he did not want to participate in a virtual debate.
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