Navarro: Pelosi, Dems 'Using Workers as Hostages' Over Relief Bill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats are "using workers as hostages" to get the multitrillion-dollar coronavirus stimulus deal bill that they want, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro claimed Monday, while calling for an unemployment measure to be passed in the next few days.

"[President Donald Trump] is deeply concerned about people who are on the unemployment line who face eviction," Navarro said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "What he would love to see right now and immediately is some progress on enhanced employment benefits as well as eviction [solutions] while the negotiations take place."

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin are "working tirelessly" on coming to a solution on continued coronavirus relief, he added. 

Show host Sandra Smith told Navarro he was making a "strong accusation" about holding workers hostage, as Democrats are calling to keep unemployment bonus payments at $600 a week, while Republicans are talking about making it $200. 

"I don't want to get in the middle of the negotiations," Navarro replied. "The only point I was making in the short run, meaning in the next few days, let's pass an enhanced employment package to make sure American workers on the unemployment lines are kept whole. We're all for that and we're all for making sure that people don't get evicted from their apartments. So let's get that done. We could do that today."

Meanwhile, Trump is looking at the nation's economic worries "day and night," as "it is the biggest thing on his mind besides defeating the China virus," said Navarro. "We are bouncing back and coming back but it is a long fight. We're going to have these structural adjustments we'll have to punch through over time. And having a president in Trump who is the best jobs president in history, American people should take great comfort in that."

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