Nancy Pelosi Criticizes Donald Trump’s Coronavirus Executive Actions As ‘Constitutional Slop’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized President Donald Trump’s executive actions aimed at addressing the financial burden caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic. While speaking on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, the California Democrat said that Trump’s actions were an “illusion” and “constitutional slop.”
Pelosi said that the orders sound good at first glance, but upon examination, do little to actually help average Americans struggling as the pandemic continues to move across the country.
“While it has the illusion of saying we’re going to have a moratorium on evictions, it says I’m gonna ask the folks in charge to study if that’s feasible. While he says he’s going to do the payroll tax, what he’s doing is undermining Social Security and Medicare, so these are illusions,” Pelosi said of Trump’s orders.
Wallace pushed back, saying that Trump was forced to act because Republicans and Democrats in the Senate had failed to reach an agreement.
Pelosi responded that Democrats had offered compromises but that Republicans haven’t met them in the middle.
Talks have been stuck for several weeks, with progressives holding out for more than $3 trillion in relief, while Republicans have settled on somewhere around a third of that in spending after reported infighting. Pelosi offered a compromise of meeting in the middle.
“What the president did doesn’t even accomplish what he sets out to do in the categories that he did. But we said to them, we’ll come down a trillion, you go up a trillion. Meet us halfway, and we’ll be able to have an agreement that meets the needs of the American people,” she said.
She argued that Trump’s move will take a long time to benefit citizens, if they see the money at all.
On Saturday, Trump issued four executive orders which extended unemployment benefits and sought to stave off evictions. They also addressed the payroll tax and student loans.
Both Democrats and Republicans criticized the move, arguing that he is bypassing Congress and violating the constitution, as The Inquisitr previously reported.
Meanwhile, Pelosi is leading negotiations in the House and Mitch McConnell is leading GOP efforts in the Senate.
Pelosi also addressed a question from Wallace addressing reports that Russia is seeking to interfere in the upcoming 2020 race to the benefit of Trump, while China appears to be attempting to interfere on behalf of Joe Biden.
She pushed back, saying that what China was doing wasn’t the same thing and that Congress was seeking more information on Russia’s actions.
