White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow is not convinced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants to strike a deal on the next COVID-19 relief package ahead of the presidential election.
Kudlow mentioned a letter Pelosi sent to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asking him to respond to the Democrats’ latest offer.
“Your responses are critical for our negotiations to continue,” Pelosi wrote.
She added:
“The President’s words that ‘after the election, we will get the best stimulus package you have ever seen’ only have meaning if he can get [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell to take his hand off the pause button and get Senate Republican Chairmen moving toward agreement with their House counterparts.”
Kudlow criticized Pelosi for writing the letter.
“This letter mysteriously is published in the Politico before the secretary himself even gets a copy of it. I mean that to us said okay this is not real and we’re not going to have a compromise,” Kudlow told the Washington Post on Thursday.
Watch his comments below:
Larry Kudlow, White House chief economic adviser, on Speaker Pelosi and a stimulus deal: "We just think she's stringing us along. I'm sorry to say that. It's not personal, but I don't think she wants a deal or a compromise pre-election…" https://t.co/nqSPGAvfS4 #postlive pic.twitter.com/lWeSvoxOeY
— Washington Post Live (@PostLive) October 29, 2020
Robert Costa pressed Kudlow on why President Donald Trump does not speak to Pelosi himself.
“Secretary Mnuchin is a terrific negotiator and that process was working but unfortunately it didn’t reach the outcome. All the issues on the table, but it became all or nothing,” Kudlow said.
He argued, “And, again… the business about the letter and so forth, secretary is so frustrated on the phone and we just think she’s stringing us along. I’m sorry to say that. It’s not personal, but I don’t think she wants a deal or a compromise pre-election. So we’ll wait perhaps until post-election.”
In his response to Pelosi, Mnuchin explained he could only consider her letter as a “political stunt.”
Read his response below:
I woke up this morning and read @SpeakerPelosi’s letter to me in the press. Enclosed is my response. Her ALL OR NONE approach is hurting hard-working Americans who need help NOW! pic.twitter.com/tarhPwYmkv
— Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) October 29, 2020
Mnuchin also noted he has spoken to her for the past 45 days “in an attempt to reach a serious bipartisan compromise.”