Democrats Launch New Committee to Investigate Trump's COVID-19 Response
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announces new select House committee
© press
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has announced that the Democrats have set up a new select committee to investigate President Donald Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the president works around the clock as he continues to steer America through the devastating Chinese virus crisis, Democrats will begin investigating his administration's coronavirus efforts.
The panel will also review the management of the $2 trillion economic relief package, which seeks to ease the financial strain caused by measures imposed to battle the invisible enemy.
The government set up a $500 billion corporate liquidity fund and is providing $377 billion in small business aide as part of the stimulus package.
The new House committee will “examine all aspects of the federal response to the coronavirus and ensure the taxpayer’s dollars are being wisely and efficiently spent,” Pelosi told reporters during a conference call.
"The panel will root out waste, fraud, and abuse; it will protect against price-gauging, profiteering, and political favoritism,” the speaker continued.
© press
"We need transparency and accountability,” Speaker Pelosi added, according to Breitbart.
"Where there’s money there’s also frequently mischief."
The panel will be chaired by House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC).
The development comes after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced that he will introduce legislation to create a “nonpartisan” commission to examine the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis.
“After Pearl Harbor and 9/11, we looked at what went wrong to learn from our mistakes,” Schiff, who led the House Democrats’ impeachment effort as the outbreak started to spread, tweeted on Wednesday.
“Once we’ve recovered, we need a nonpartisan commission to review our response and how we can better prepare for the next pandemic.”
“I’m working on a bill to do that,” he added.
Over the weekend, Pelosi accused President Trump of fiddling while people died of coronavirus and hinted that she would launch an investigation into his actions.
"Let me say how sad it is that even since the president’s signing of the bill, the number of deaths reported has doubled from 1,000 to 2,000 in our country,” Pelosi told CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.
"This is such a very, very sad time for us. We should be taking every precaution.
"The president, his denial at the beginning, was deadly.
"His delaying of getting equipment to where it — his continued delay in getting equipment to where it’s needed is deadly.
“I don’t know what the purpose of that is. I don’t know what the scientists are saying to him.
"I don’t know what the scientists said to him, when did this president know about this, and what did he know?
"What did he know, and when did he know it? That’s for an after-action review.
"But as the president fiddles, people are dying,” she added.
© press
President Trump fired back at Pelosi on Monday, calling her a “sick puppy,” who was focused on impeachment amid coronavirus outbreak
“She’s a sick puppy, in my opinion. She really is,” President Trump told Fox News.
“She’s got a lot of problems. And that’s a horrible thing to say.”
“Don’t forget, she was playing the impeachment game, you know her game where she ended up looking like a fool,” he added.
