Bret Baier drops the mic on Pelosi’s political game, ‘sets the record straight’ on delayed funding

April 24, 2020 | | Print Article
(Image: Fox News screenshot)

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Fox News anchor Bret Baier wanted to “set the record straight” on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her role in delaying funding to American businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Baier called out the California Democrat during a discussion with co-hosts of “The Five” on Thursday, exposing her for causing delays to the Paycheck Protection Program while blaming Republicans.


(Source: Fox News)

As Democrats fought over additions to the legislation that would re-fund the small business loan program, Republicans slammed Pelosi and her caucus for blocking a Senate effort earlier in the month which would have infused $250 billion in new funds to the coronavirus relief program.

“I want to correct that record,” Pelosi announced from the House floor on Thursday, adding that “nothing could be further from the truth.”

“To say we delayed this, no, you delayed this,” she said, directing her remarks to Republicans and especially Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who was seeking a “clean bill” and unanimous consent on the measure.

Democrats, however, wanted to add even more funding for local governments, hospitals and disadvantaged businesses, with Pelosi declaring that it was actually Republicans who “refused to accept the fact that we needed $100 billion for our hospitals, and our testing.”

The Fox News co-hosts of “The Five” discussed the partisan finger-pointing, with Jesse Watters calling out Pelosi for “trying to steal Trump’s thunder and make Democrats roll over at her parliamentary maneuvers.”

Liberal Juan Williams thought it was “bad form to play the political blame game when people are suffering” but called out McConnell for some of his rhetoric. Baier interjected to school Williams on Pelosi’s tactics.

“Let’s just set the record straight here,” the host of “Special Report” began.

“There was a clean bill that, once they found out the small business pot was going to be dry, there was a clean bill to put more money in it. Nancy Pelosi did not go forward with that. Period. The end. Stop there,” Baier said bluntly.

“So yes, they wanted to do other things, Democrats did. But to have an answer that says that it was Mitch McConnell who delayed is really political ju-jitsu,” he continued.

“And you have to have somebody that pushes back and says, wait a second, in that time that there was a delay, there are ‘X’ number of small businesses around the country that had to make the decision: I haven’t got the money, so I’ve got to let these people go,” Baier said, referring to the additional 4.4 million jobless applications by Americans since the funding ran out for small businesses.

“So when the number goes up 4.4 million on unemployment, there is a reason that it goes up that way. And that delay is part of it,” Baier explained.

About $300 billion of the nearly $500 billion relief package was aimed at replenishing the paycheck protection program but Democrats had added a list of programs including $60 billion in economic disaster funds for small businesses, $75 billion for hospitals, and an additional $25 billion for coronavirus testing.

Baier’s no-nonsense take on Pelosi’s theatrics got a thumbs up on social media.

Frieda Powers

Frieda Powers

Senior Staff Writer
[email protected]

Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
Frieda Powers

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