US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday put off a vote on President Donald Trump’s call to boost Covid-19 relief checks and urged the Senate to override his veto of a defense bill, in a rare challenge to his fellow Republican three weeks before he vacates the White House.
McConnell acted shortly after Trump assailed Republican leaders on Twitter, calling them “weak” and “tired” in an apparent effort to get the Senate to increase Covid-19 relief checks to $2,000 from $600 and to support his defense bill veto.
After McConnell addressed a rare year-end Senate session, Trump tweeted that the Senate must approve the higher payments as soon as possible, “unless Republicans have a death wish.”
McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, later introduced a bill combining the larger checks with provisions meeting Trump’s demands for a repeal of legal protections for social media companies and a probe of the November election results. An aide described the action as a procedural move in response to a White House request.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer predicted the legislation would never become law.❐
