After throwing a grenade threatening to blow up a major Covid bill and government funding and force the government to halt in the midst of a pandemic, Donald Trump was playing golf for a second day in a row at Christmas.
Failure to agree on the bill could deny checks to millions of Americans on the sidelines.
Trump had no events on his public schedule on the first day of winter vacation Thursday, but he traveled to his Palm Beach golf club, where CNN cameras saw him on the links.
Journalists were not given any details of their schedule for the day, but said, “As the holiday season approaches, President Trump will continue to work tirelessly for the American people. His schedule includes many meetings and calls.
Trump’s departure came as Washington was still waiting for his surprise, the 11th hour demand that a year-end spending bill that congressional leaders spent months negotiating would give most US $ 2,000 Covid coverage, far more than the 600 members of his own party. he accepted. The idea was quickly rejected by House Republicans during a rare Christmas Eve session, which left the proposal on edge.
The bipartisan compromise had been considered a deal made and had garnered widespread approval in the House and Senate this week after the White House assured Republican leaders that Trump supported it. If Trump refuses to sign the deal, which is attached to a $ 1.4 million government funding bill, it will force the federal government to stop, as well as delay aid controls and stop unemployment benefits and protections against evictions in the midst of the worst part of the pandemic.
It was an apparent act of antagonism toward Republicans in Congress from a president who has been enraged by the November 3 loss to President-elect Joe Biden and has tried to come up with increasingly outrageous new schemes to try to overthrow the results of a democratic election. He has been incited by allies such as his lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who accompanied the president to the Florida Air Force One.
Trump’s rage has focused, in part, on Republicans in Congress who, he says, have given insufficient support to his mission to delegitimize Biden’s victory by launching unfounded claims of massive election fraud before Congress meet to count the votes of the polling station on January 6th.
Meanwhile, the nation continues to roll as the coronavirus spreads, with record infections and hospitalizations and more than 327,000 deaths. And millions are faced with the possibility of spending the holidays alone or struggling to get the two heads without adequate income, food or shelter thanks to the economic weight of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Democratic House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have tried to salvage year-end legislation to try to prevent a closure. Democrats will remind House lawmakers in Washington to vote on Trump’s $ 2,000 proposal Monday, though he would likely die in the Republican-controlled Senate. A vote on Monday on an uninterrupted measure is also being considered to at least prevent a federal shutdown and keep the government running until Biden opens on January 20th.
In addition to relief checks, the approved Covid bill would establish an additional temporary unemployment benefit of $ 300 per week, provide a new round of grants for affected businesses, restaurants and theaters, and money for schools and provide money for health care providers and to assist with the distribution of Covid vaccines.