House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN anchor Jake Tapper to “just calm down” Sunday when he suggested that she may have made “a tactical error.”
Tapper was referencing the latest coronavirus relief spending package and the fact that Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had allowed it to move forward without including state and local funding — which several states have said they desperately need. (RELATED: ‘No Money For The Post Office. Instead, Inject Lysol Into Your Lung’: Pelosi Uses Press Conference To Attack Trump)
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Tapper began by suggesting that Pelosi and Schumer had compromised, saying, “You and senator Schumer made this major concession on the most recent legislation because you —”
“It wasn’t a concession. It wasn’t a concession,” Pelosi interrupted, adding that state and local funding would be coming in the next package. “It was always an interim bill. We always said that C.A.R.E.S. II would be where we would go for state and local, and we will, in a big way,” she said.
Tapper pointed out that some states — New York in particular — had been pushing hard for state relief to be included in that last package. Their situation could be further complicated since Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appears to oppose bailouts for the states.
“So Cuomo says he would have insisted on state funding in the last bill. And now Senator McConnell is saying he wants to push the pause button. Was this a tactical mistake by you and Senator Schumer?” Tapper asked.
“Just calm down,” Pelosi shot back. “We will have state and local and we will have it in a very significant way. It’s no use going into what might have been.”
Pelosi continued to promise additional funding for state and local governments in an upcoming relief package, saying that the impatience of the governors impacted would only help Congress to come back with more money for them. “They should be impatient. Their impatience will help us get an even bigger number,” she explained.