Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Monday said House Democrats could try to “blackmail” President Trump into signing more rounds of legislation in response to the escalating coronavirus outbreak.
“I think it’s very likely that the House, where the radicals are in control, would love to blackmail the country. They tried on this last bill and failed,” Mr. Gingrich said on “Fox & Friends.”
“They’re salivating at the idea that they could produce a new bill with everything they’ve ever wanted in life and somehow blackmail the president into signing it,” he said.
Congress recently cleared a $2.2 trillion economic rescue package, and Mr. Gingrich said there will likely be at least a technical corrections bill. He said Mr. Trump and the GOP shouldn’t accept “radical policies” to get things done.
The former speaker had recently used similar language when Congress was crafting the package, saying Democratic leaders were trying to blackmail the GOP.
Democrats said they managed to win additional concessions in the $2.2 trillion package by delaying proceedings in the Senate for a few days, but the GOP said the final bill was very similar to one authored by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans.
Democrats have already been talking about at least one more round of coronavirus-related legislation. Congress had already cleared bills to boost federal health funding and expand the social safety net in response to the outbreak.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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