Pelosi slams McConnell for blocking $2000 checks

"The President of the United States has expressed his support for the $2000. The Democrats and Republicans in the House have passed that legislation. Who is holding up that distribution to the American people? Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans... In blocking it, they are in denial of the hardship that the American people are experiencing now," Pelosi said at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

McConnell on Tuesday put off a vote on increasing COVID-19 relief checks from $600 to $2,000 and urged senators to override President Donald Trump's veto of a defense bill, in a rare challenge to his fellow Republican three weeks before Trump leaves office.

McConnell tied the larger checks, which were demanded by Trump and supported by Democrats, to two other measures the president wants but which most Democrats oppose.

The maneuver was likely to kill off all three measures.

Trump earlier on Tuesday assailed Republican leaders on Twitter, seeking to pressure them into increasing the checks and supporting his veto of the defense bill because it doesn't repeal legal protections for social media companies that he wants scrapped.

The Senate must approve the higher relief payments as soon as possible, "unless Republicans have a death wish," Trump tweeted, appearing to refer to next week's close Georgia runoff elections that will determine control of the Senate.