Senator Capito and other Republican senators wait for their talking points on the Woodward book
One of today's big national stories was the release of Bob Woodward's book on President Trump, "Rage." Here is the headline at the Washington Post:
Woodward book: Trump says he knew coronavirus was ‘deadly’ and worse than the flu while intentionally misleading Americans
Earlier today, reporters asked various Republican senators about some of the revelations in the book. Here was Capito:
Shelley Moore Capito (https://t.co/lWR4lSNb9J.), asked about Woodward report on Trump downplaying pandemic: “I have not seen that so I can’t comment on it.” https://t.co/ERi9kZyXhS
— Alex Bolton (@alexanderbolton) September 9, 2020
Senator Capito on a new coronavirus bill
From MetroNews in July:
Capito says new stimulus approval likely within 2 weeks
The headline in last week’s Wheeling Intelligencer
Capito Sees Stimulus Package Coming in September
Today’s headline from WV News:
West Virginia Sen. Capito 'not optimistic' about passage of next COVID-19 relief bill
What has changed? Nothing, it was apparent six weeks ago to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and most observers that there was not enough Republican support for another relief bill.
Capito does have an opponent
Despite her absence from local Ogden newspapers, Democrat Paula Jean Swearengin continues to be the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. While the locals have ignored her, other papers have covered Swearengin’s candidacy. For example, last week, the editors of the Morgantown Dominion Post did a video conference in which both candidates shared some of their positions. Earlier this week, the Dominion Post printed “Swearengin, Capito talk plans for office” which covered some of the candidates’ differences. While it was certainly not exhaustive, the article gave voters an opportunity to read about some of the differences between the candidates. That's more than could be said about Wheeling's "community" papers which regularly cover Capito but so far, have totally ignored Swearengin.
Thursday Update
By cutting billions from the original Republican bill, Senate Majority Leader McConnell was able to get all but one Republican behind their coronavirus relief bill. The bill failed to reach the 60-vote threshold, however. From the New York Times:
The plan, which Republicans were calling their “skinny” bill, slashed hundreds of billions of dollars from their original $1 trillion proposal unveiled in July. It included federal aid for unemployed workers, small businesses, schools and vaccine development.
But Democrats, who have refused to accept any proposal less than $2.2 trillion, argued that it did little to address the economic devastation of the pandemic. It did not include another round of stimulus checks for taxpayers or aid to state and local governments facing financial ruin, omissions that cut down the overall price tag of the legislation in an effort to appease fiscal conservatives. And while it would have revived weekly federal jobless benefits that lapsed at the end of July, it set them at $300 — half the original amount.