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Rep. Peter King blasts President Trump
The Long Island congressman says the items that President Trump is complaining about in the spending package were requested by his administration.
NEW YORK - Retiring Long Island Congressman Peter King attacked President Trump for his complaints about the stimulus package that passed Congress after months of negotiations.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for lawmakers to amend the $900 billion pandemic relief package that was passed by Congress on Monday, which was set to deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and resources to vaccinate a nation confronting a frightening surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
The long-time Republican representative spoke out about the president on FOX 5's Good Day New York morning show on Thursday.
"He is entirely wrong on this," Rep. King said. "When he said 'the bill is a disgrace', that was his bill. Every item he criticized, his administration specifically asked for."
In a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday, Trump outlined a litany of items in the $900 billion legislation that he deemed "wasteful."
"For example, among the more than 5,000 pages in this bill — which nobody in Congress has read because of its length and complexity — It’s called the COVID relief bill, but it has almost nothing to do with COVID. This bill contains $85.5 million for assistance to Cambodia. $143 million to Burma. $1.3 billion for Egypt and the Egyptian military, which will go out and buy almost exclusively Russian military equipment. $25 million for democracy and gender programs in Pakistan," Trump said.
As for the president coming out in support of increasing stimulus payments to U.S. citizens, King blasted his recommendation.
"It was the Trump administration that insisted on $600 payments, not the $2,000 payments," King said. "What the president said the other night was totally untrue."
King says Trump was either lying or had no idea what's been going on.
"All I can think of is he panicked when he saw he was being attacked by yahoos on social media and some of his favorite news programs," King said. "To do this 24 hours after the vote was passed is inexcusable. It's wrong and the president is entirely wrong on this."
King warned that unemployed workers are going to be the ones that suffer because of President Trump.
"He must've been looking at his Twitter feed or whatever and he just overreacted and it's wrong."
FOX TV digital reporter Kelly Taylor Hayes contributed to this report