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On Tuesday morning, top GOP lawmakers joined President Donald J. Trump in a phone call to discuss the next round of COVID-19 stimulus. The call was made before the president finally announced that he directed his top negotiators to delay discussions until after the election.
Trump, who has relied on Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Steven Munich, the Treasury Secretary, to lead the negotiations, took part in the call during his first complete return from the hospital told by an administration official.
Other GOP leaders who participated in the phone call included Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Mnuchin.
The president said later Tuesday that he had briefed his administration’s negotiators to conclude coronavirus stimulus talks with Democrats until after the November 3rd election.
If the White House applies it, the assertion will end a continuing push to direct trillions of dollars more in relief to the American people as the pandemic rampages through the U.S. and the economy strive to recover from virus-related closures.
Although the president had for weeks left Mnuchin and Meadows in charge, he tweeted Saturday from his hospitalization at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to call on Congress to strike a deal.
“Our Great country wants and requires stimulus. Work together to get it done. Thank you!” Trump wrote at the time. On Monday evening, the president was discharged from Walter Reed and will continue to be cured of Covid-19.
The House Democrats passed a $2.2 trillion stimulus package on Thursday, even as the two sides struggled to agree on a deal.
The GOP senators, particularly McConnell, have opposed the legislation for being too outsized and argue that paying trillions more wouldn’t be worth ballooning the national debt.
The newest deadlock emerges as the U.S. reports hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus cases daily, and some of the biggest U.S. firms are considering new layoffs and furloughs.
Adding to the urgency, the weekly supplemental unemployment benefit of $600, the widow to apply for loans via the Paycheck Protection Program, and the federal moratorium on evictions all expired weeks ago.