Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday called out President Trump’s response to the $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill passed in Congress last week “unbelievably cruel.”
On ABC’s “This Week,” host Jonathan Karl noted the president is essentially threatening to veto the legislation by calling for larger direct payments of $2,000, something Republican lawmakers strongly oppose.
“What the president is doing right now is unbelievably cruel,” replied Sanders. “Many millions of people are losing their extended unemployment benefits. They’re going to be evicted from their apartments because the eviction moratorium is ending. We are looking at a way to get the vaccine distributed to tens of millions of people. There’s money in that bill.”
Sanders said that, considering the “terrible economic crisis facing this country,” the current bill should be passed immediately, after which another bill for the proposed $2,000 checks should be quickly passed.
Trump’s calls for larger payments came as quite a surprise, Karl noted, as many assumed he would sign the aid bill as soon as it landed on his desk. The ABC News host asked Sanders if there had been communication coming from the White House that indicated Trump’s position before he suddenly called for larger payments.
“No. Everybody assumed — everybody — that Mnuchin was representing the White House,” Sanders replied, referring to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “I talked to Mnuchin a couple of weeks ago, and that was the assumption that everybody had.”
Karl ended the interview by asked Sanders for his thoughts on President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet picks.
“I believe that the progressive movement deserves seats in the Cabinet. That has not yet happened,” said Sanders, though he refrained from commenting directly on any nominees.