There’s one thing to know about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. — she’s always playing politics and looking for an edge.
But did Pelosi actually hold up coronavirus funding — endangering the lives of Americans — in a desperate bid for political advantage?
That’s the accusation being made by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Speaking with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, McCarthy claimed that Pelosi prevented a bill with billions in coronavirus funding from passing last week so Democrats could campaign on the issue in this week’s Super Tuesday primaries.
“We have the coronavirus. We need to fund this,” McCarthy said. “You know what Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker, did? She withheld the bill last week. You know why? So the DCCC (the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) could run ads against seven Republicans.”
Media outlets have confirmed that the DCCC did in fact run ads targeting seven GOP members for the Trump administration’s response to coronavirus. The ads followed in the footsteps of many Democrats in Congress criticizing the administration.
So McCarthy is accusing Pelosi of waiting until the ads got its punches on the targeted Republicans before approving the bipartisan bill.
The House of Representatives finally did overwhelmingly pass $8.3 billion in coronavirus funding yesterday, in which only Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. and Ken Buck, R-Colo., voted no.
But according to McCarthy, the bill’s approval should have happened much more quickly.
“Instead of putting America first, [Pelosi] put her politics first and kept the bill from coming to the floor,” McCarthy said.
To watch a clip of McCarthy’s explosive interview, just click below.
What a scam—Speaker Pelosi held up the vote on coronavirus funding so that her campaign team could run ads against Republicans for Super Tuesday.
Instead of putting America first, she is putting politics first. pic.twitter.com/ws0nn0hUXP
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) March 3, 2020
Democrats had previously been accused of playing politics with coronavirus funding, including trying to attach unpopular, unrelated legislation to it.
President Donald Trump and his allies have called attention to what they see as Democrats and liberals alike using coronavirus to tear down the White House administration just as the number of cases in the U.S. began to multiply.
Donald Trump Jr., in speaking with Fox News, even claimed that Democrats “seemingly hope that it comes here, and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump’s streak of winning.”
And media critics have taken up a similar note, with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh declaring that Democrats are “weaponizing” the deadly virus against the Trump administration.
The accusation has put a stain on what was a rare bipartisan moment in politics, which saw lawmakers come together and agree after differing on seemingly every issue under the sun.
The Horn editorial team