Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) appeared on "The View" Thursday to sound the alarm about Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who, he said, is behaving in the same way former President Herbert Hoover did just before the Great Depression.
McConnell, who has spent the past few weeks focusing on getting President Donald Trump's appointees a hearing, is ignoring critical bills that Schumer said are necessary for propping up the United States.
"The View's" Joy Behar brought up the HEROES Act, which would help allocate funding to states and localities struggling in the era of COVID-19. It would also provide hazard pay for all of the front-line workers who have spent the past several months risking their lives to help with the coronavirus pandemic.
"Instead of holding a vote on The #HeroesAct, Senate Republicans are engaging in a clear act of political retribution designed to help the President keep his job," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted on Wednesday. "The Senate must stop playing along with the President's dangerous tactics & take steps to save lives and livelihoods."
McConnell has called the bill "dead on arrival," claiming that there's no "immediate need" for a fourth round of stimulus spending.
Schumer disagreed, saying McConnell "is in an alternative universe."
"No immediate need?" Schumer said. "When you look at the TV stations and the news and you see miles of people lined up in cars to go to food pantries and the news media interviews them and they say, 'I've never had to do this before, but I need to feed my family.' When you find people evicted from their homes and apartments, when you find people still getting sick, so to say there's no immediate need? Do you know who used to say things like this? Herbert Hoover, when the stock market crashed, Herbert Hoover and some of his friends said, 'leave it alone. We don't need to do anything,' and the Great Depression occured."
He went on to warn that there are urgent and necessary needs for Americans that are being ignored.
"I don't expect the Republicans to agree with every piece of it, but this idea they should be sitting on their hands and doing nothing hurts the country badly, could make the economic recession turn into a depression, it could create a greater health crisis," said Schumer.
Watch the interview below:
