Pelosi hits Trump, White House over stalled coronavirus negotiations

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ripped President Trump on Sunday over the lack of progress made on negotiations for another coronavirus relief package, accusing him of being uninterested in the plan’s larger details.

Speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” the House leader blamed Trump for the tens of thousands of deaths that have occurred across the U.S. since the pandemic began, as well as the more than 4 million total infections in the country.

“More than 4 million have been added to the infection list because we paused [testing and tracing efforts],” Pelosi said.

{mosads}”Over 80,000 more people have died, because they paused,” she continued. “Could we have saved all of those lives? Not all, but many.”

Borrowing a line from Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) speech at the Democratic National Convention l ast week, she added: “Trump fiddles while Rome burns, while America burns.”

During the CNN interview, Pelosi also commented on newly reported audio of a conversation between the president’s niece, Mary Trump, and his sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, during which the latter could be heard disparaging her brother and accusing him, among other dishonest actions, of getting another person to take his college entry exam.

“It’s heartbreaking to think that a family member of the President of the United States would have that view of him. You know, the president has called everything a hoax for a while. He’s called the virus a hoax, he’s called the Russian interference in our election a hoax. He calls everything a hoax, which is just a projection of what he is: a hoax. This is just further evidence of his inauthenticity and his lack of integrity,” Pelosi told Tapper.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responds to Pres. Trump’s sister describing him as “cruel”: “It’s heartbreaking to think that a family member of the President of the [US] would have that view of him. … this is further evidence of his authenticity and his lack of integrity” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/Do5t0lTaej

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 23, 2020

–This report was updated at 10:21 a.m.