WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) joined John Berman on CNN to discuss the developments on a COVID-19 stimulus bill and the economic support it would give to people in need.

“We have more than 25 million Americans on unemployment right now, more than 8 million Americans infected, more than 220,000 Americans dead. This is a public health crisis of epic proportions and our economy is barely hanging on because of the unanimous support of the Senate six months ago for the CARES relief act. [Majority Leader] McConnell has been AWOL. He has been absent, a total nonparticipant, and is now actually being a critical speed bump in the last days as Speaker Pelosi is trying hard to work out a robust package of relief,” Senator Coons said. “We have 6 million Americans late on their mortgage or their rent. That should be in this bill. Every state is facing rising challenges, both in terms of their budgets and the pandemic response. Robust state and local government relief should be in this bill. And there should be another round of support for families. I hope we can get this done.”

Full audio is available here. A transcript is provided below.

Q: Joining me now is Democratic Senator Chris Coons. Senator, thanks so much for being with us. Let me read you a little bit of CNN's reporting on what's going on in the Senate in regards to this relief package. At a closed-door lunch on Tuesday, McConnell indicated that the deal was unlikely to get a vote in his chamber before election day, according to multiple sources. And he said he warned the White House against getting behind such a proposal before November 3rd that would badly divide Senate Republicans. So McConnell isn't jumping up and down about this. What do you want this morning? 

Sen. Coons: John, I want us to make real progress towards delivering relief for the millions of Americans who are suffering through this pandemic, who are struggling through this recession, both of which have been made far worse than they ever should have been by President Trump's bungled mishandling of this public health crisis. We have more than 25 million Americans on unemployment right now, more than 8 million Americans infected, more than 220,000 Americans dead. This is a public health crisis of epic proportions and our economy is barely hanging on because of the unanimous support of the Senate six months ago for the CARES relief act. McConnell has been AWOL. He has been absent, a total nonparticipant, and now is actually being a critical speed bump in the last days as Speaker Pelosi is trying hard to work out a robust package of relief. We have 6 million Americans late on their mortgage or their rent. That should be in this bill. Every state is facing rising challenges, both in terms of their budgets and the pandemic response. Robust state and local government relief should be in this bill. And there should be another round of support for families. I hope we can get this done. I have confidence in Speaker Pelosi and her negotiations. Many of us in the Senate are ready to support a broad and significant bill like this. But it's striking that Republicans, in the midst of this public health crisis, are signaling they will not support any more funding for American families in the middle of this recession and pandemic. 

Q: Regardless of what Mitch McConnell will do with it – leave his opposition or reticence aside here – do you want Speaker Pelosi to make the deal? Make the deal? Maybe don't make perfect the enemy of the good. Maybe even take the deal a little bit north of what the $1.8 trillion the White House last offered was. 

Sen. Coons: Look, let's put this into broader perspective. $1.8 trillion is an enormous amount of money. It's more than double the amount of the relief package, the Recovery Act that the Obama-Biden administration was able to get. I'll remind you, in 2009, when the Obama-Biden administration came in, our economy was in free fall, because of the collapse in Wall Street and Republicans doggedly objected to moving forward with any relief, insisted on major tax cuts to get anything. This is about three times the size of the real stimulus that was in that bill. This is what Democrats care about. Providing support for American families who are struggling. 

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