Mitch McConnell to Pelosi: ‘Stand Down’; We’re Not ‘Taking Advantage of the Crisis’

by Hannah Bleau

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to “stand down” as she prepares to position Democrats to use the next economic relief bill to pursue progressive agenda items, also warning Republicans that she is “looking for a way to jam us.”

“She needs to stand down on the notion that we’re going to go along with taking advantage of the crisis to do things that are unrelated to the crisis,” McConnell said during an interview with the Washington Post this week.

Pelosi has signaled a desire to move quickly to the next stage of economic relief. The newfound sense of urgency follows Democrats delaying the recently passed $2 trillion emergency relief package to pursue their own version filled with a host of progressive pet projects like ballot harvesting and Green New Deal initiatives.

While Democrats lost that battle, Pelosi is gearing up, eagerly anticipating the next phase of relief and using the severity of the coronavirus pandemic as her catalyst.

“The victims of the coronavirus pandemic cannot wait,” Pelosi said in a statement. “It is moving faster than the leader may have suspected, and even he has said that some things should wait for the next bill.”

“I hope that we can work in a four corners manner for the common good,” she added.

While McConnell remains open to bipartisan discussions and solutions, he reemphasized that Pelosi’s first proposal remains a nonstarter moving forward and effectively warned the GOP that Pelosi is “looking for a way to jam us.”

According to the Post:

Beyond infrastructure, Pelosi has also pushed this week to include a repeal of the cap on state and local tax deductions as part of upcoming legislation, which its supporters say would help Americans who pay tens of thousands of dollars each year. The Republican-authored 2017 tax law capped the amount that households could deduct at $10,000.

“That’s an example of something that has nothing to do with the pandemic,” McConnell said, pledging to oppose the idea in the weeks ahead. “What’s really happening here is, she’s looking for a way to jam us.”