WASHINGTON, DC – After President Trump hastily announced he was ending coronavirus relief talks, and then sent a series of contradictory tweets calling for a few piecemeal provisions that would leave millions of Americans behind, U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee who was part of a twenty-member bipartisan working group that helped craft the CARES Act and took a lead role in creating the $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund for states, issued the following statement:

“President Trump’s erratic, inconsistent behavior is hurting the country.  He is ignoring public health experts and the advice of his own Fed Chairman. The only job he seems to  care about is his own.

“After hastily abandoning the talks and noting the stock market disruption it caused, President Trump sent a series of bizarre tweets trying to untangle the chaos he created.

“But here’s the bottom line: Action was needed months ago and President Trump and Senator McConnell delayed and denied it.  If those two wanted a COVID relief bill, we’d have a COVID relief bill.  Instead, they put more value on a ramming through a lifetime Supreme Court pick over public health and the health of our economy.

“President Trump knows that the interest rate policy of Federal Reserve Chairman Powell is the only reason the bottom hasn’t dropped out for the President’s pals on Wall Street.  But Chairman Powell knows Wall Street isn’t Main Street and he is pleading for additional stimulus and sounding the alarm that the economy is in serious jeopardy.

“Leadership requires a measure of consistency, stability, and sacrifice for the country.  Sadly, President Trump doesn’t get it.  People need help, and so does the economy.  Instead of throwing a lifeline, President Trump seems more interested in hurling insults and denying federal assistance to what he calls ‘Democrat run states.’  We are the United States, Mr. President.  And the American people deserve better, more stable presidential leadership.”