The NPR Politics Podcast - As Congress Closes In On A Deal, Trump Says He Wants To Open U.S. By Easter

Episode Date: March 24, 2020

A Senate agreement on emergency funding to address the coronavirus could be "hours" away, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday, as Republicans and Democrats seemed close to bridging disagreements that have stalled a deal on the approximately $2 trillion package. And on a Fox News special, President Trump said that he hopes the United States can begin to get back to normal by the middle of next month, potentially setting up a clash with public health officials. This episode: campaign correspondent Asma Khalid, White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez, and congressional reporter Claudia Grisales.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi, this is Kathy in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I just finished recording a video lecture for my graduate students. They're taking a class in the assessment of child language disorders. And now I'm getting ready for my afternoon docket of video conferencing meetings. This podcast was recorded at 2.13 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24th. Okay, here's the show. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Asma Khalid. I'm covering the presidential campaign.

I'm Frank Ordonez. I cover the White House. And I'm Claudia Grisales. I cover Congress. Congress now seems to be close to a deal on a nearly $2 trillion stimulus bill. And I know it feels like we have been close before, but this is different after lots of negotiations yesterday. It seems that things are moving very quickly. Here's what top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi said to CNBC this morning. I think there is a real optimism that we could get something done in the next few hours. And Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seemed to echo that sentiment on the Senate floor. Now, at last, I believe we're on the five-yard line.

It's taken a lot of noise and a lot of rhetoric to get us here. That, of course, sometimes happens in this town. So, Claudia, before we talk about the status of the bill, you know, we know that there is a lot in this piece of legislation. So can you just recap for us the top two or three major headlines in this package? So this package does cover quite a bit. We've gone from a trillion dollar mark to a two trillion dollar mark pretty quick. So a lot has been added. Some top lines include unemployment insurance that could give coverage to workers of up to four months. We're looking

at direct payments to Americans that'll depend on their income level on how much they will get. And then there's significant aid to small and large businesses alike. One sticking point was a $500 billion package that would help fuel these industries hardest hit, these large businesses such as airlines. But one concern and a sticking point for Democrats is they didn't think there was enough oversight for this money. They thought there should be an inspector general and there should be some sort of congressional panel to oversee how these funds are given out. And some of the concerns were that some of the money could go towards helping with layoffs or CEO pay or other concerns, and they don't want to see any

of these funds really support kind of these corporate missions in terms of kind of this level of pay or cuts in jobs. And so now that those details are in the measure, that's something that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pointed out today, that they got that oversight in there. Democrats are more willing to sign off on this piece of the package, which was a very large portion of the plan. The idea is that this bill would help prop up the economy, something that's extremely important to President Trump. And you're seeing some signs from the stock market that there is a little bit more optimism because they've gotten this close. So any proposal will eventually need the president's buy-in. Franco, do we have a sense of how the president is feeling about all of this? Well, I mean, the president says he is optimistic about reaching a deal. For the most part,

he has largely delegated the administration's lead to Secretary Mnuchin to kind of work out the details. Mnuchin has given him frequent updates. President Trump thought they were close to a deal over the weekend, but he refused to support the proposal last night, he said, because Democrats wanted things that he said were unrelated. He was asked about this today at the Foxtown Hall. He specifically said that Democrats wanted too many clean energy provisions, including support for wind energy. But he expressed optimism today that his advisors on the Hill were going to work toward a deal.

This timeline, it could go very quickly this week. For several days, this dragged on. We thought there was a deal. There was no deal. There's a deal. And so we. For several days, this dragged on. We thought there was a deal. There was no deal. There's a deal. And so we're hearing that again, this time with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer emphasizing they're not only on the five-yard, they're even on the two-yard line. And so it's very possible that we could see this ramp up this week with the Senate approving this measure as early as tomorrow and the House considering it later this week. Hopes are they could get this to the president by week's end, if possible, and start to implement some of its measures as early as next month. You can definitely feel kind of an increased optimism on both sides

of Pennsylvania Avenue. And so I guess my question is, though, even if a deal is reached very quickly, you know, this week and and the president signs this. Do we have a sense of when people would begin to feel that relief in terms of cash payments or unemployment subsidies? Because there are people who have now been out of work for, in some cases, perhaps a couple of weeks. standpoint, you know, President Trump and Secretary Mnuchin have been insistent that they want some of these direct payments to individuals and small businesses. They would say immediately they wanted that money to be out in the next two weeks. So there could be some signs of that pretty quickly. All right, let's take a quick break. And when we get back, we'll discuss how President Trump handled questions about the virus in a Fox News town hall this afternoon.

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Last night, President Trump said he did not want to let the cure for the coronavirus pandemic be worse than the problem itself. And the country, he says, wasn't built to be shut down. Today, he took questions in a town hall on the Fox News channel. Franco, did we get a better sense of what is coming after these first 15 days of social distancing? You know, President Trump is pushing very hard to get the economy back running again. He said he really didn't want to close the country in the first place, but he felt he had to. Now he says he's extremely worried about losing more people by putting the country into a massive recession or depression if this is prolonged for many more weeks.

He didn't say he wants to reopen the economy after 15 days, but he did say that it's a matter of weeks. He said he'd like to get it going by Easter, which is April 12th. You said that we would, I'm paraphrasing now, you would like to be back to normal by Easter Sunday. Yes. That's 19 days from now. Okay. Is that true? Is that possible? I think it's possible. Why isn't it? I mean, we've never closed the country before and we've had some pretty bad flus and we've had some pretty bad viruses. And I think it's absolutely possible now people are going to have to practice all of the social distancing and don't shake hands and wash your hands and all of the things that we're doing now.

But we have to get our country back to work. That was the president taking questions in a town hall on the Fox News channel earlier today. And Franco, it seems like this might set up some sort of tension between what we're hearing from the recommendations of public health experts. In fact, even some recommendations of President Trump's own public health officials in terms of what the president is desiring in terms of quickly opening the economy back up. Yeah, that's true. I mean, we, you know, he has been asked about this. His public health officials have been asked about this. And, you know, they are not saying whether they agree with him. The answer from Dr. Birx and the Surgeon General, for example, are that they will, after the 15 days, they will take all the information in, take all the data, and make a recommendation at that point. But the president has been very clear that he will listen to their recommendation, but it is a decision that he is going to make.

And he says he feels that, you know, you can still be careful, but also open the economy up at the same time. He just says people may have to do things a bit differently, stop shaking hands, for example, just being more careful, he says. One interesting point I've seen from members of Capitol Hill today is they're not quite embracing this idea that the president has put forth. We've seen some Republicans such as Liz Cheney in the House and Lindsey Graham in the Senate say that the president has put forth. We've seen some Republicans such as Liz Cheney in the House and Lindsey Graham in the Senate say that the health experts here need to be the guide when it comes to lifting these limits right now. And so their concern is that if we lose lives as a result of lifting these precautions, that that will hurt the economy as well. So those are some of the

concerns I'm already hearing from even Republicans on Capitol Hill. Which reminds me, Frank, I wanted to ask you in terms of governors in California, New York, they've been very responsive. They've had a mass influx of these cases. They're concerned. How would this play out with them if the president is trying to lift some of these limits right now? Yeah, it's not only California and New York. I mean, it's interesting that more states, including like Massachusetts, are kind of clamping down and issuing stay-at-home rules while the president is kind of moving forward and already talking about opening the economy. The reality, though, is states are know, states are going to make these decisions on their own. And the federal government, the Trump administration says they will respect

that. And Vice President Pence reiterated that today at the town hall. But you can't underestimate the bully pulpit of the White House and the influence that President Trump could have on some other states where this virus has not hit yet. So, Franco, the other thing I wanted to ask you about is, you know, just in the last 24 hours, we've seen two key allies of the United States, both India and the United Kingdom, announce national lockdowns. These are leaders that President Trump is friendly with. Do you get the sense that there's any pressure on him to do the same here? I mean, certainly he's watching those things. I mean, certainly he's watching those things.

I mean, Britain, India, they did it. You know, as you know, Britain and India are two. But President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence said today that such a step has not been under consideration at all yet for the United States. All right. Well, it sounds like President Trump is, in fact, actually trying to move things in the opposite direction. Instead of a lockdown, try to open the economy up, open states up for business as soon as possible.

Well, that is a wrap for today. We're going to leave it there for now. And to keep up with all of our best online analysis, you can subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Just head to npr.org slash politics newsletter. I'm Asma Khalid. I'm covering the presidential campaign. I'm Frank Ordonez. I cover the White House. And I'm Claudia Grisales. I cover Congress. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.