'He's bragging about it in Kentucky': Biden calls out McConnell for touting COVID-19 relief bill the senator voted against
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- President Joe Biden called out Sen. Mitch McConnell for touting the relief package he voted against.
- McConnell told constituents Kentucky would see funding but said he did not vote for the legislation.
- "He's bragging about it in Kentucky," Biden said in response.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
President Joe Biden called out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for touting the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill after McConnell was among other GOP lawmakers who opposed it.
On Tuesday, McConnell talked about the benefits of Biden's American Rescue Plan and its impact on Kentucky, but he also mentioned how the package passed along party lines.
"It passed on a straight party line vote, not a single member of my party voted for it," McConnell said Tuesday. "So you're going to get a lot more money. I didn't vote for it, but you're going to get a lot more money."
He continued: "Cities and counties in Kentucky are getting closer to $7 or $8 million, and if you add up the total amount that's going to come into our state, $4 billion - that's twice what we were saying last year - so my advice to members of the legislature and other local officials is spend it wisely, because hopefully this windfall doesn't come again."
The Kentucky senator went on to add he thinks the US has "floated entirely too much money across the country," which he claimed contributed to inflation and "difficulty getting people back to work."
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Biden clapped back at McConnell boosting the benefits of the COVID-19 relief package, saying the senator "loves our programs."
"He told me he wasn't going to get a single vote in order to allow me to get with the help of everybody here that $1.9 trillion ... program for economic growth," Biden said. "Look it up, man! He's bragging about it in Kentucky. 'It's a great thing for Kentucky; it's getting $4 billion to help for it.'"
After the relief package was passed earlier this year, McConnell was among the Republican members of Congress who slammed the legislation.
"This is a classic example of big government Democratic overreach in the name of COVID relief," McConnell said in a statement in March.
Like McConnell, GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina praised health funding in his district that was a part of the COVID-19 relief package largely opposed by his party.
"Oftentimes this means providing relevant federal information on proposals that the congressman does not support," Cawthorn spokesman Micah Bock told NBC News. "There are portions of the American Rescue Plan that benefit NC-11, however, bills are not passed in portions, they are passed entirely or not at all, and this bill does significantly more harm than good."
GOP Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi also boosted the billions of funding going to support the restaurant industry as part of the relief legislation he voted against.
"Just because there's one good provision in a $1.9 trillion bill, doesn't mean I have to vote for it ... I think it's a stupid question," Wicker told CNN's Manu Raju on why he didn't support the whole package. "I'm not going to vote for $1.9 trillion just because it has a couple of good provisions in it."
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