Schumer denounces ‘faulty’ and ‘unworkable’ Trump coronavirus executive actions
Following stalled negotiations, the president signed four executive actions
Donald trump’s additional coronavirus relief spending : Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the directives as “faulty,” “unworkable,” “weak” and “far too narrow”
One day after President Donald Trump attempted to solve Congress’ impasse over additional coronavirus relief spending by signing a series of executive actions, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the directives as “faulty,” “unworkable,” “weak” and “far too narrow” a solution to address the needs of millions of out-of-work Americans.
“The event at the country club is just what Trump does — a big show, but it doesn’t do anything,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday about the president’s Saturday signing ceremony. “If the American people look at these executive orders, they’ll see that they don’t come close to doing the job.”
The measures signed by Trump on Saturday address some of the priorities within the stalled congressional relief negotiations, such as providing $400 per week to unemployed Americans a potential halt to federal evictions, but are already facing backlash from critics calling into question whether they exceed the president’s powers.
“Can the president do this? Is it legal?” ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Schumer on Sunday.
“Well, you know, I’ll leave that up to the attorneys. It doesn’t do the job … it’s not going to go into effect in most places for weeks or months because it’s so put together in a crazy way,” Schumer said, arguing that the continuation of expanded unemployment payments would “flow smoothly” had Trump extended the previous $600 weekly rate, as Democrats proposed.
Along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Schumer has served as the Democrats’ lead negotiator on the stalled relief package. Democrats, pointing to Republicans’ decision to wait months to introduce a Senate counterproposal to the House’s successful May legislation and relative disunity once they did, have refused to budge on several of their demands, such as to extend the expanded unemployment benefit.
In a statement Saturday, Schumer and Pelosi continued to advocate for their Republican counterparts to return to negotiations, but given Democrats’ relative inflexibility, Stephanopoulos pressed the minority leader Sunday about what a compromise would look like. Schumer pointed to spending, but characterized GOP leaders like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as being unwilling to meet in the middle.
“In an effort to compromise, Speaker Pelosi told the negotiators from the president’s office, we will come down a trillion, you come up a trillion, that would bring us to 2.4, them to 2 and we could meet in the middle and get things done quickly,” he said. “They said absolutely not. I said to them, this means it’s your way or the highway? And they basically said yes. That is not the way to create a deal.”
