Trump campaign slams DNC chair, Biden for trying to pin CARES Act 'problems' on administration

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez argued recently that President Trump and his administration — not Congress — are responsible for the flaws of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act that Democrats helped pass during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trump campaign responded to the criticism from Perez on Wednesday, calling it "pathetic." 

The Democratic-led House and GOP-led Senate passed the CARES Act, which set up the Paycheck Protection Program, and Trump signed it into law on March 27.

During a “Latino Small Business Virtual Roundtable" on May 21, Perez said Trump is responsible for not providing enough forgivable PPP loans to small businesses in low-income communities, arguing that the $660 billion program is sending too many large companies stimulus cash.

The PPP program was designed to allow businesses with less than 500 employees to apply for forgivable loans through more than 5,100 private lenders. Some loans went to large public corporations with less than 500 employees in each of their locations due to a loophole in the law that Congress passed.

Following his comments, Perez was asked if Congress shares some of the blame for any problems with the PPP program since it passed the CARES Act, the third in a series of coronavirus stimulus bills.

“The implementation of the PPP program is the responsibility of the executive branch,” responded Perez. "When the Congress, in 2009, passed the Recovery Act, President Obama put Joe Biden in charge of the implementation of that $800 billion bill, and you know what? Joe Biden oversaw the implementation of a bill that went forward flawlessly."

The CARES Act as passed by Congress did not require recipients to publicly disclose their forgivable loans so the public would be aware of the companies granted taxpayer money. Many companies have nevertheless opted to self-disclose their loans. 

“The people who are supposed to be helped in this program all too frequently aren’t getting the help because there are incompetent people implementing the program,” Perez said.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a key architect of PPP, said that Congress will make the federal government disclose the loan recipients if the Small Business Administration or Treasury Department does not do so on their own.

"The bottom line is we're going to know one way or the other who got this money,” Rubio said. “Treasury, SBA is eventually going to have to release that. I always thought they were going to have to, and if they don't, we'll make them do it.”

Perez said some companies led by Trump campaign donors received PPP loans.

“One Trump donor’s hotel, the biggest recipient of PPP funds, got $96.1 million meant for small businesses,” Perez said, referring to Monty Bennett, who announced he’s giving the money back. “This is called the corrupt implementation of the PPP program.”

Perez added that "it should come [as] a surprise to no one that the implementation of PPP has gone forth with all of these problems.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, recently made a similar argument in a campaign video.

The Trump campaign objected to Perez and Biden's criticism.

“The Paycheck Protection Program has saved millions of jobs across the nation as President Trump works with both the private and public sector to combat the coronavirus," Ken Farnaso, deputy press secretary for the Trump campaign, told Just the News. "It’s sad that the DNC Chair and the Biden campaign would attack something that has been a blessing to so many business owners and their staffs."

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the overall unemployment rate, as well as the jobless rate in the Hispanic and African-American communities, were at record lows. Perez referred to the rising unemployment rate in minority communities during the COVID-19 pandemic as the "Trump economy."

“To see a [Hispanic] unemployment rate now at 19% and I’m pretty confident — I hope I’m dead wrong — but the Latino unemployment rate will probably be north of 20% in the next jobs numbers the first Friday in June — that’s the reality of this Trump economy,” Perez said.

Farnaso said the Democrats in Congress "played politics" during the CARES Act negotiations in March.

"Americans know that President Trump is doing everything possible to ensure that we not only defeat the coronavirus, but that we build on the economic renaissance that we experienced before this pandemic," he said. "In fact, it was the Democrats who played politics with the livelihoods of these small businesses while attempting to pass their Green New Deal wish list. While President Trump leads, Biden has assumed the role of the opposition in the war against the coronavirus. It’s pathetic.”

During an interview last week, Trump was asked about the rising jobless numbers as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and how it might impact his campaign.

“Nobody blames me for that,” Trump said. "We had to turn off our country."

Referring to the pre-pandemic economic growth, Trump said, “I did it once, and I’ll do it again, and he [Biden] can’t do it.”

After Trump’s interview, the DNC tweeted, “That's wrong. He deserves blame.”