Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who voted for the coronavirus relief bill now under fire, said Wednesday that she will consider supporting direct payments of $2,000 if money is repurposed from "wasteful spending" toward making that happen.
The Georgia Republican, who is running in one of the two Jan. 5 Senate runoffs that will determine control of the chamber next year, made her comments at a campaign event after President Donald Trump called the bill a "disgrace" and threatened not to sign it if the direct check amounts weren't raised from $600 a person to $2,000, reports The Hill.
The bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, with only a handful of lawmakers voting against it.
Loeffler also accused Democrats of holding up the relief measures, including for small businesses, because of political reasons.
"It's incredibly important that Georgians hold Democrats accountable for that on Jan. 5, and know that they have someone in Washington that is going to make sure that we have targeted relief, that we're responsible with taxpayer dollars, and that we get that funding to them as soon as we can," she said.
Raphael Warnock, Loeffler's Democrat opponent, has supported stimulus checks as part of his campaign and Wednesday said Loeffler should back Trump's call for the higher payments.
"As I’ve said from the start, the Senate should have acted on this months ago and support for Georgians should have been far greater. Donald Trump is right, Congress should swiftly increase direct payments to $2,000," Warnock said in a statement. "Once and for all Senator Loeffler should do what’s best for Georgia instead of focusing on what she can do for herself."
He said on Twitter that Loeffler's comments sounded more like she is a "no" on the higher payments.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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