McConnell slams Bernie Sanders defence bill delay as an attempt to ‘defund the Pentagon’

Progressive senator likely is forcing Senate to remain in session through 2 January

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell laid into Bernie Sanders for slowing the chamber’s override of Donald Trump’s veto of a massive military policy bill, saying the progressive senator wants to “defund the Pentagon.”

The Vermont independent, who caucuses with Democrats, is forcing the Senate to weave through a maze of procedural hurdles before taking a final vote on undoing the president’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) veto. He is doing so because Mr McConnell is refusing to bring to a vote as a standalone bill a House-passed measure increasing from $600 to $2,000 Covid stimulus checks for some Americans.

Instead, the majority leader made clear during his Wednesday session opening speech that he intends to keep the checks part of a three-part measure that also includes Mr Trump’s demands for a repeal of legal protections for social media companies and a probe of his voting fraud claims.

The Kentucky Republican defended his bundling of those issues as just what the president “requested” when he threatened last week to block a combination year-end spending bill and a Covid relief package.

Mr McConnell called Mr Sanders’ NDAA moves a “political stunt” because he is not being allowed to force a vote on the standalone checks measure “unless he gets to muscle through” the House-approved measure that the majority leader claimed “would add half a trillion to the national debt.”

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday said on the floor he did not “want to hear” GOP gripes about an aid move to help Americans adding to the deficit because they did so during Mr Trump’s term.

“I don’t want to hear that we can’t afford it. I don’t want to hear that it would add too much to the deficit,” Mr Schumer said. “Senate Republicans added nearly $2 trillion to the deficit to give corporations a massive tax cut.”

Mr Sanders’ temporary blockade means the chamber will not be able to vote to end debate on the override measure until Friday. A final vote would then come only after a 30-hour click hits zero – either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

“The Senate will not let our national security be shoved off course.,” Mr McConnell said, before adding this swipe at the progressive Sanders: “Not by members who have spent 30 years trying to gut our military.”

“We will stay on this bull” until is passed, he said, “one way or another.”

Mr Sanders shot back by slamming Mr McConnell’s home state for having 10 of the poorest 25 counties in the country.

"All we're asking for is a vote - what is the problem with that?" he asked rhetorically, saying the GOP leader "might want to get on the phone and start talking to working families in Kentucky."

Mr McConnell was just re-elected for another six-year term by his fellow Kentuckians.