House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that she is pushing for another stimulus package to help the nation deal with the coronavirus, during a Tuesday morning appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Asked if she took responsibility for the nation’s slow reaction to the coronavirus pandemic, Pelosi said, “No, none at all, first of all, we had hoped that there would be leadership from the White House because the president has to sign a bill.”
She added, “We’ve had, as I said, three very strong bills that we have passed in a very positive way; again, addressing the shortcomings that we saw — testing, testing, testing — that was the theme of our first legislation, way back when.”
Pelosi continued:
“I do think, as we go into this fourth bill, that it will be important for the Republicans to recognize the challenge that is out there […] I hope that in this next bill that we will be able to address the concerns of our state and local governments. That is absolutely essential.”
Pelosi went on to urge for more help for state and local governments, “We need to do more, we need to do more by way of our appropriations, by way of our tax code and by way of policy and also by way of the fed doing more to help the state and local governments with the challenges that they face, which are massive.”
She also appeared to blast Trump, “Congress has been a very positive force in this, but again, we can only go as fast as the signature and I feel very sad that there was no recognition, no respect for science right from the start.”
Here’s that clip:
Speaker Pelosi on upcoming coronavirus legislation: "I hope that in this next bill that we will be able to address the concerns of our state and local governments. That is absolutely essential. We need to do more … we can only go as fast as the signature." pic.twitter.com/S7TduoQOME
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 31, 2020
Trump and Pelosi have been on rocky ground for months and CNN reported last week that they have not spoken in months.
But President Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning that he watched the Speaker’s appearance on Morning Joe, writing that he hoped to find out “what moves she was planning to further hurt our Country.”
But Trump also offered a backhanded compliment, adding “Actually, other than her usual complaining that I’m a terrible person, she wasn’t bad. Still praying!”
I watched a portion of low rated (very) Morning Psycho (Joe) this Morning in order to see what Nancy Pelosi had to say, & what moves she was planning to further hurt our Country. Actually, other than her usual complaining that I’m a terrible person, she wasn’t bad. Still praying!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 31, 2020
It’s unclear what sort of timeline we might see for Pelosi’s next spending package — Congress is not expected to return to Washington DC until April 20 and the District of Columbia is currently under a stay-at-home order.