White House Throws McConnell Under the Bus

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This is good news, I suppose:

The White House is willing to cut a deal with Democrats that leaves out Senate Republican legislation aimed at protecting employers, hospitals and schools from coronavirus-related lawsuits, according to two people with knowledge of internal White House planning….One of the people familiar with the administration’s thinking said the measure was “considered important but not absolutely essential.”

Mitch McConnell probably could have gotten his liability shield if he had been more reasonable. There’s a case to be made for some kind of modest “safe harbor” legislation, after all. But McConnell wouldn’t go there. Instead he insisted on a shield so strong it would have protected businesses even from the most egregious negligence. Even the Trump White House was able to see what a political loser this was.

Now let’s get to work on extending unemployment benefits, shall we?

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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