McSally Calls on Big Companies to Return Relief Loans Intended for Small Businesses
U.S. Senator Martha McSally (R-AZ) joined Fox and Friends this morning and called on large businesses with access to capital to return their relief loans so small businesses and mom-and-pop shops can access vital funding. She also spoke about U.S. posture toward Iran.
Watch her interview HERE.
See excerpts below:
STEVE DOOCY: Right and that’s why it’s so frustrating, senator, that they already ran out of money early and then it comes to light that places like Shake Shack which has got a lot of locations and a lot of money and Harvard wound up with close to $8-9 million bucks. The president made it very clear, Harvard has to give that money back.
…
You know and the frustrating thing about this, senator, is for the small businesses looking in and they thought this is going to help me make up my payroll for those people we’ve had to ask not to come into work, but then I’ve got family members who have been dealing with a really big bank for many, many years and they were told that you know what you would be better of going to a smaller bank because we’re only going to do business with really big companies because we can make more money on the big companies with one deal than 30 of the little deals.
SEN. MARTHA MCSALLY: Well, that’s disgusting. I got a masters from Harvard, but they need to give that money back. It came from another pot of money but still they have a $40 billion dollar endowment. They should help struggling students with that, and look when we passed this legislation, we said what’s the fastest way to get the money out to these small businesses and really the words of the day were speed, also grace, good faith, and selflessness, right? We are all in this together as Americans. We decided to use the financial institutions to more quickly get this money out. I tweeted out yesterday: Dear big banks, the PPP money is not yours. It’s the taxpayers’ money and it needs to go to mom and pop shops. They’re just passing through, they’re just processing it, this isn’t about their relationships with others who have plenty of access to capital. So you big companies out there: give the money back, support your workers. You big banks out there: you get that money out to those mom and pop shops, those one-person businesses. That’s why we chose to do it this way. Do the right thing.
BRIAN KILMEADE: I want to move to another area of your expertise because of your military background as a fighter pilot. The president made it clear that it’s not ok for these smaller to attack our warships and he’s given instructions out. He just tweeted this out, I want to share with you: I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea. And we’ll show you the video, you’ve probably seen this already. I mean we could just these boats, but now they try it again, do you believe that if you’re the Navy captain, admiral you will blow them out of the water because of that tweet?
SEN. MCSALLY: Well, we’ve seen in the past when we show weakness around the world if you remember they were doing this recklessly and with no limitations. They were even taking our crews hostage and embarrassing them, and we’re now showing strength using a maximum pressure campaign with Iran that includes ensuring that our military can defend themselves and protect themselves and the rules of engagement need to be clear having been in the military about what you need to do to ensure you can protect your ships, so I appreciate a commander in chief who is showing strength there. We need to make sure that our Sailors, Soldiers, Airmen, and Marines can protect ourselves and we need to continue to show strength.
Background:
Earlier today, Sen. McSally tweeted that Harvard should give all of its relief money back.
On April 21, Sen. McSally supported the latest coronavirus relief package that will provide an additional $484 billion dollars in relief to support small businesses, hospitals, and increased testing in Arizona.
On April 21, Sen. McSally called for funds to focus on small businesses, after reports of publicly traded companies with access to capital and bank relationships receiving money quickly while many mom and pop shops have struggled to access PPP funding.