McConnell: We’re a ‘Long Way Apart’ from Democrats on Coronavirus Relief

Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) acknowledged his caucus was “a long way apart” from Democrats as the two sides work to achieve a bipartisan agreement on a COVID-19 relief package.

McConnell laid out his priorities, which he said included liability protection.

“[T]he discussions continue,” he said. “I think both sides want to get to an outcome, that’s the good news. The bad news is we are a long way apart. And we’ll see. But I think the American people need an outcome. It can only be done on a bipartisan basis.”

“We need to work our way through our differences and come up with a solution that helps once again focus what I think we need to apply the focus to — kids in school, health care, jobs, and liability protection so that doctors, hospitals, nurses, universities, K through 12, our whole society is not afflicted within an epidemic of lawsuits on the heels of a pandemic that we are all wrestling with,” McConnell continued.

McConnell also discussed problems within his own caucus who have expressed opposition over concerns the relief package would add to the federal debt.

“In the end, it’s going to have to be done on a bipartisan basis,” he said. “It is correct, and I’ve said repeatedly, I’ve got 15 or 20 of my members who believe that we have already added quite enough to the national debt. We have a debt now the size of our economy for the first time since World War II. So yes, there are differences of opinion, but that wouldn’t get an outcome.”

“The only thing that gets an outcome is the speaker and the president of the United States reaching an agreement. And once they do that, I believe that the majority of my members will support it, but not every single one of them. I’ve been clear about that from the beginning,” McConnell added.

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