NJ Gov. Phil Murphy: McConnell ‘Irresponsible and Not Factual’ With Coronavirus Comments About States

 

Governor Phil Murphy (D- NJ) hit Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over suggesting bankruptcy for struggling states.

McConnell said this week, “I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route. It saves some cities. And there’s no good reason for it not to be available. My guess is their first choice would be for the federal government to borrow money from future generations to send it down to them now so they don’t have to do that. That’s not something I’m going to be in favor of.

Chuck Todd asked Murphy Sunday, “If you don’t get a federal bailout or federal reimbursement money, what are the first services do you think you would have to start cutting back on if the federal government either limited or didn’t give you some money to deal with this pandemic?”

Murphy said he’s had “constructive conversations” with the White House before saying, “I have to reiterate what Senator McConnell said about letting states go bankrupt was both irresponsible and not factual.”

“We won’t go bankrupt,” he continued, “but we’ll gut the living day lights out of educators, first responders, the very folks we desperately need. This is the health care crisis of all time in our country’s history. We need states to be fully funded at the point of attack, being there for our residents, so we need a big slug.”

You can watch above, via NBC.

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Josh Feldman is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Email him here: josh@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter: @feldmaniac