U.S. virus cases reach 550K, President Trump retweets ‘Fire Fauci’ tweet
As the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise, President Trump retweeted a threat to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci. Yahoo Finance’s Jessica Smith joins the On The Move panel to discuss.
Video Transcript
ADAM SHAPIRO: But right now let's go to Jess Smith. She's our correspondent in Washington. She's got the latest for us.
JESSICA SMITH: Yeah, Adam, you mentioned, one of the big stories that people are watching inside the White House, the president retweeting a tweet that said #FireFauci. This comes after Dr. Fauci in an interview said that more lives could have been saved if the administration had closed down the country, really shut it down sooner. There had been some speculation that President Trump was frustrated with Dr. Fauci, but this is a public signal from the president here. So all eyes will be on him to see what happens next if there are any further actions, further statements from the president about Dr. Fauci.
Meanwhile, Congress is trying to figure out this interim emergency relief-- so not a phase four but really just doing more, putting more money toward shoring up the economy and helping workers. Republicans are wanting more money for that small-business protection program. They did not try to pass more money this morning in their really quick session like they did on Thursday when they tried to pass $250 billion more for that program.
The Small Business Administration said yesterday evening that $212 billion in loans have already been approved. So that's roughly 60% of the money that Congress is allocated, so that could run out at some point this week. That's why Republicans are pushing for more money.
But Democrats want to see more than just funds for that program. They want to see money for state and local governments and for hospitals. They also want to increase funding for SNAP. So those are some of their priorities.
Republicans don't seem willing to negotiate on here. Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer put out a statement saying, "We have real problems facing this country, and it's time for the Republicans to quit the political posturing by proposing bills they know will not pass either chamber and get serious and work with us toward a solution."
So that was a new statement kind of giving the state of play this morning. We'll be watching for any updates on how these talks progress. Adam.