Connolly: Trump’s Delay on COVID Stimulus Was Playing ‘Russian Roulette with American Lives’

Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA) Monday on CNN’s “Newsroom” likened President Donald Trump’s delay in signing the coronavirus stimulus bill to “playing Russian roulette with American lives.”

Connolly said, “I referred to it as playing Russian roulette with American lives, and it literally is. You had a long session just before this with a doctor talking about how dire the situation is in hospital rooms. You pointed out that we’ve gone from 16% of critical care COVID patients in hospitals to 40%. Lives are at stake. There’s money in that bill to rush the vaccine for administration and distribution. That was held up. 14 million Americans are going to find their unemployment insurance has ended and is interrupted because of the president at this time dithering and playing games over whether he would sign the bill. So this is a very serious situation, another example of his reckless, self-centered behavior, that, as I said, puts lives and the economy really in jeopardy.”

He added, “What he did was reckless frankly. If he wanted a higher amount, which Democrats wanted— remember, we proposed $1200 being extended from the CARES Act to the HEROS Act. It was Secretary Mnuchin from his administration working with Republicans that lowered that dollar amount along with the unemployment dollar amount. We’re in the same place, we think Americans should get more, and the burden is now on his own party for him to deliver his own party in the vote we have tonight.”

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