Mitch McConnell Blindsided By Trump Corruption During Press Conference
Subtitles:
"On Monday, the GOP's coronavirus stimulus proposal was revealed to contain funding to construct a new FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. — a proposal that could make the Trump Organization a lot of money, but that took Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) completely by surprise.
On CNN's "OutFront," reporter Phil Mattingly noted that Senate Republicans are not happy with the sudden inclusion."
Subtitles:
>> The GOP's Corona virus relief bill contains
funding to essentially construct a brand new
FBI headquarters in Washington DC. And if
this proposal is carried out the way that
the White House, Donald Trump specifically
is envisioning, it could make the Trump Organization
quite a bit of money. Again, going back to
non stop violations of the Emoluments Clause.
Democrats refused to hold Donald Trump accountable
for that. And now we see in real time we've
been seeing in real time how much of an impact
it has on our tax dollars and decisions that
are made by Congress. So Trump would like
this brand new building in Washington, DC.
The previous plan was to build the FBI headquarters
in the DC suburbs. But there would be an issue
there because it could potentially open up
some competition for a Trump Hotel in Washington
DC. So the White House has been trying to
find ways to include funding for this new
FBI building in the next stimulus bill in
response to the pandemic.
Now it turns out that Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell was blindsided by the inclusion
of the provision in the Republican proposal.
I wanna go to the next video where you can
see his real thoughts on this.
>> Why is funding for the FBI building in
this bill?
>> I'm not sure that it is, is it?
>> There is implementation to COVID related
matter, so we will get more information in
the morning
>> Look, I think this is a starting place.
You can see that we've had a lot of our members
Involved and we can't pass a bill in the Senate
without Democrats nor obviously kind of passed
the house.
So every bill has to start somewhere. The
Republicans are in the majority in the Senate.
This is the starting place and we'll get,
you'll have plenty of stories to cover along
the way, as we have these discussions back
and forth across party lines and with the
administration.
>> So Benjamin obviously the funding for a
brand new FBI building, nearly $2 billion
to fund this, by the way has nothing to do
with financial or economic relief.
Related to Corona virus I just wanted to get
your thoughts on the video we just watched
because it was clear that Mitch McConnell
was blindsided by this and does not agree
with the inclusion of this particular provision.
>> But you forget and inside of the of the
bill it says that it's in to help the FBI
prepare for the Corona virus.
So I'm not sure exactly how they're gonna
prepare for it when it's a full blown pandemic
in this country and it's kind of late for
that. But the rub here really is Donald Trump's
role in this and the role he's in. He's concerned
with the FBI building potentially becoming
some competition for him.
But when I researched the story a little more,
and I went back to some of the talking points
they gave originally in 2018. They really
cast this as something as because Donald Trump
is a real estate mogul. And that because he
has the insight, and he has the ability to
make sure that the American taxpayers get
the best deal, and that was kind of the end
of the conversation.
I think what has to happen here is that reporters
have to press every single day that this comes
up. But they should not have ever stopped
back in 2018 and just accepted at face value
that because he made some money in real estate
that he was qualified to dictate where the
FBI headquarters should be stationed.
>> Mitch McConnell isn't the only Senate Republican
who is against funding this new FBI building
in Washington DC, Senator Lindsey Graham was
asked about it and he said that makes no sense.
And senator John Barrasso also said that this
funding should actually go through the annual
government funding bill instead and added
to me it's not Corona virus related.
Now let me be clear, I'm not giving Republicans
any brownie points. I mean they have covered
up for everything Donald Trump has done time
and time again. So it wouldn't surprise me
that the Trump administration would find some
shady ways to sneak in funding for this new
FBI building.
But yes, the FBI building that's currently
in DC is near the Trump hotel. And if they
were to vacate it and build a new FBI headquarters
in the suburbs, that plot of land could be
utilized for a brand spanking new hotel that
would compete with the Trump hotel, which
is exactly why these types of conflicts of
interest matter.
They matter. For all the Americans who thought
this awesome candidate who's gone bankrupt
six times happens to be a great businessman,
so, why don't we elect him because he'd know
what he's doing. Obviously he doesn't know
what he's doing. The only thing he thinks
about are the conflicts of interest and how
we can use the office of the presidency to
benefit himself to enrich himself and benefit
his own businesses that's it.
It's just so devastating considering what
millions of Americans are going through right
now. With a lack of income. With lack of financial
relief from Congress. No health care. This
is America. This is what we're dealing with.
And it's shameful to say
the least.
