White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Wednesday called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to "get serious" about the American people when it comes to negotiating for a coronavirus relief package, and slammed her for appearing unmasked at a closed hair salon in San Francisco to have her hair done.
"This is typical Washington, D.C.," Meadows said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends," while commenting on the video showing the House speaker at the salon on Monday, while it remained officially closed to the public.
"They get on national TV," Meadows said. "They preach to the American people that it should be one way and, yet, in private, when the cameras are not rolling, and in this case, I guess the cameras were rolling, it shows a very different story. It's the same thing whether it's in San Francisco with her going into a salon or in the privacy of a negotiating room, it's time that she get serious about helping the American people."
Meadows said Republicans are inviting Pelosi back to the bargaining table to hammer out a deal, but she continues to stand in the way of President Donald Trump's call for a bill allowing stimulus checks and money for small businesses and education.
"[Pelosi] still wants to spend half of the money on bailing out state and local governments," said Meadows. "Instead of sending the money to people, she wants to send almost $1 trillion to poorly run Democrat cities across the country."
He said on Tuesday that "real progress" had been made between Democrats and Republicans on a fifth coronavirus relief package, and while an impasse remains on state and local aid, he expects Senate Republicans to either pass a relief bill or put one out to get to a 60-vote threshold sometime next week.
Meanwhile, Meadows said Tuesday he agrees with Trump's comments in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he labeled organized rioters as "domestic terrorists."
"This is a president that has been very clear," said Meadows. "He is going to do two things: make sure our communities are safe and that we have a secure future. And so he is addressing both of those as he did yesterday with the folks in Wisconsin."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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