Kim Strassel Hails Trump’s Covid Stimulus (That Democrats Supported), But Hits Lack of ‘Unity’ of Biden’s Relief Bill (That Zero Republicans Backed)
Wall Street Journal editorial board member Kim Strassel hit President Joe Biden for the “lack of unity” for his $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, contrasting its lack of Congressional Republican support to the “resoundingly bipartisan” nature of former President Donald Trump’s five previous coronavirus stimulus packages.
During an appearance on Fox’s The Ingraham Angle, the conservative columnist shrugged off the potential benefits of the Covid aid package Biden signed on Thursday, which is projected to supercharge the ailing U.S. economy this year.
Just hours after the president gave a prime time address hailing the historic bill’s passage, Fox host Laura Ingraham conceded that “delivering checks to the American people,” as Biden promised in his 2020 campaign and during the Georgia runoff elections, “maybe in the short term it does help some people, no doubt.”
“But President [Donald] Trump, of course, wanted to deliver money and relief to the American people,” Ingraham quickly added, “but at the same time reopen the country, which would, you know, generate jobs and optimism and all the things we love, so where does this fall down?”
“Here’s a statistic for people to bear in mind,” Strassel said in response. “We actually had five Covid bills prior and every one of them under the last administration and every one of them bipartisan, resoundingly bipartisan.” What the Journal columnist implied, but notably did not spell out for the Fox audience, was that all of Trump’s bills passed with bipartisan majorities because Democrats in Congress put politics aside to overwhelmingly support them.
“This is the first Covid bill that we passed on entirely on a party line,” Strassel then added. “How does that count for unity?” Again unmentioned was a key fact, that, with the presidential roles reversed, Congressional Republicans chose to unanimously oppose this latest coronavirus stimulus.
“The press is going to call it that and they’re going to say it’s great and it helps,” Strassel lamented. “When you go down the road of propaganda, it’s not just that you’re not being true to all of your readers and watchers out there, but you become part of the propaganda and then your own reputation rests on keeping up the falsehoods.”
Strassel, however, didn’t specify any “falsehoods” being pushed about Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
“They propped up Biden all during the campaign,” she continued, offering a broad brush attack on the media. “Now they have to make it sound as though he’s delivering on his promises even though the facts simply show otherwise.”
Watch the video above, via Fox News.
