On Monday, the GOP's coronavirus stimulus proposal was revealed to contain funding to construct a new FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. — a proposal that could make the Trump Organization a lot of money, but that took Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) completely by surprise.
On CNN's "OutFront," reporter Phil Mattingly noted that Senate Republicans are not happy with the sudden inclusion.
"The bill [has] a $1.75 billion new FBI building in it," said host Erin Burnett. "This is, would seem inappropriate to put pork in a bill like this."
"This has been a major flash point of Republican negotiations over the course of the last several days between the White House and Senate Republicans," said Mattingly, "and if you want to know how Senate Republicans really feel about it, take a listen to what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had to say."
"Well, regarding that proposal, obviously we had to have an agreement with the administration in order to get started," said McConnell in the clip. "And they'll have to answer the question of why they insisted on that provision."
"The Majority Leader is not very loose with his words, but he has very clear intent with what he was saying there, which is this is the administration's proposal," said Mattingly. "The administration tried to force this proposal into these negotiations, I am told, multiple times over the last several weeks. Senator Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said earlier today, 'I just don't know why we're doing this.'"
Watch below:
Shares