House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday said President Trump’s executive orders directed toward coronavirus relief are “illusions,” not lasting solutions, The Hill reports.
“What the president did is unconstitutional slop,” Pelosi told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” In particular, she said, the president’s orders to distribute more funds to unemployed Americans or renters at risk of eviction “are illusions.”
Trump signed four executive orders over the weekend after negotiations for a new trillion-dollar coronavirus stimulus bill broke down.
Pelosi defended Democratic leaders’ efforts in the negotiations, saying they had offered compromises and slamming Republicans for their reluctance to agree on a $2 trillion bill.
“What the president does doesn’t even accomplish anything he sets out to do in the categories he did, but we said to [Republicans], we’ll come down a trillion [dollars], you come up a trillion [dollars], and we’ll be able to have an agreement that meets the needs of the American people,” she said.
Pelosi also discussed reports from the intelligence community about the threats of interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election from Russia, claiming Russia and China are “not equal,” and repeating a 2016 talking point that Moscow’s efforts to boost President Donald Trump’s reelection bid poses a serious risk.
“[China] is not really getting involved in the presidential election,” she said. “I take second place to no one on my criticism of China, but for them to give some equivalence is not telling the whole story.”