John Hickenlooper refuses to say if he supported the targeted $500 billion COVID-19 relief bill Senate Democrats filibustered and killed earlier this week, the Colorado Sun reports in their Unaffiliated newsletter.

President Trump reamed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for refusing to consider a bipartisan deal that could pass both chambers of Congress.

In last week’s debate, Hickenlooper criticized Republicans and Democrats for blaming each other over the lack of progress on a stimulus deal, and said he would embrace a “lean” bill that could pass the Senate.

After the vote on the “lean” $500 billion bill failed, Hickenlooper blamed – you guessed it – McConnell and refused to say if we would have supported the bill.

Does Hickenlooper support the bill? His campaign refused to say, declining to answer multiple questions from The Sun.

 

Instead, Hickenlooper pointed the finger of blame at the Senate Republican leader — in other words, doing exactly what he said was the problem. “Mitch McConnell is deliberately sabotaging COVID relief negotiations,” Hickenlooper said in a statement.

This episode demonstrates the fictional idea Hickenlooper would ever cross Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer and exercise bipartisan judgment in the Senate.

More importantly, it shows Hickenlooper’s cries about struggling Colorado families desperate for additional PPP and unemployment insurance relief are just cheap political talking points that he will drop at the first sign of trouble.

The Senate stimulus bill blocked by Democrats did in fact include unemployment benefits, as well as billions of dollars for schools. Democrats killed a separate bill earlier this week to provide another round of PPP loans.

Hickenlooper’s campaign is completely funded and owned by party leadership.

Sending Hickenlooper to the Senate would only stack the chamber with another partisan Democrat who would never stand up to party bosses, and we already have that useless excuse for leadership in U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.