Rule number one: Don’t try to pull a fast one on a seasoned politician.
Apparently that’s what the White House did when it insisted on quietly including $1.75 billion in the Covid-19 pandemic relief bill for a new FBI building in Washington. The Trump administration wants to keep the FBI at it’s downtown DC location allegedly to help fight the pandemic. But many reports say the real reason is because if the FBI moves to the suburbs, a hotel could be built on the site of its old headquarters, which happens to be directly across the street from the Trump International Hotel.
As we wrote last night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was surprised to learn from reporters that money for the new building had made it into the bill. So, last night’s surprise became today’s expendable expense. CNN writes:
“Pressed by a reporter on Tuesday over the funding, McConnell responded by saying that he’s against “non-germane” provisions in the next stimulus. The Senate majority leader indicated that he hopes that anything not directly related to Covid-19 will be stripped out before a new relief measure is enacted.“
With polls showing the Senate in play, GOP Senators – especially those up for re-election – had no problem distancing themselves from Trump on this, especially since it has nothing to do with coronavirus relief.
“McConnell throws the White House under the bus,” as one post on Twitter put it.
“Several Republican senators were stunned … by the new FBI funds, which Democrats said were intended to boost profits for Trump’s hotel,” reports Politico.
“That smells like a kind of strange addition” to the Covid-19 bill, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told the Bloomberg.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a major Trump supporter, said he’d support stripping the FBI funding from the final bill, adding: “That makes no sense to me.”
