Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the GOP is “repeating Herbert Hoover’s mistake” by pushing for private companies to take the lead on coronavirus economic relief.
“The Great Depression started when the stock market crashed, but there was a Republican, conservative president then named Herbert Hoover and Herbert Hoover said, we don’t have to do anything. Let the private sector work this out,” Schumer said on The Joe Madison Show Tuesday.
“And the Great Depression occurred and 25 percent of America was out of work for years. Well, Donald Trump is saying the same thing,” he added.
Schumer said that Democrats, who are in the minority in the Senate, “have leverage” because Republicans have more seats to protect in the upcoming general election.
“They’re repeating Herbert Hoover’s mistake,” Schumer said. “But we do have leverage because these Republican senators, lots of them are up for reelection. They’re scared and they know the public — across the board — wants these things.”
Schumer also criticized the administration’s response to the pandemic, which he said is much less adequate than President Trump presents.
“But this president is so incompetent,” Schumer said. “We have no testing. And then of course he gets up and lies about it. Two months ago he said, everyone who wants a test has a test. That’s still not true. So he doesn’t even learn from the experience of other countries. So there is so much to do here.”