When Doug Steinhardt, the NJ Republican chairman, tweeted this, he knew it was a lie. Because on that very day, his own law firm in Warren County got $1-2 million of that $2T in COVID19 stimulus money.
There's nothing wrong with a law firm getting a PPP loan if it's needed to save jobs. And normally I wouldn't waste time caring that the NJ GOP chair is a raging hypocrite.
But here is why this does matter.
A while back, a Hunterdon County resident called my office angry because, she said, "everyone knows that no one in Hunterdon is getting any COVID 19 $." We had to convince her to let us track down her stimulus check.
At that time, this propaganda put out by the NJ GOP was spreading like wildfire via social media. I had to reassure several local mayors it wasn't true. I wonder how many people didn't apply for aid to which they were entitled because they believed it.
In fact, money from the $2T CARES Act went to St. Lukes Hospital and Hunterdon Medical Center; to school districts & non-profits in all our rural counties; to 2,700 small businesses in Hunterdon and my section of Warren Co (including Steinhardt's firm), supporting 21,000 jobs.
Our smaller counties and municipalities will get even more when Senator McConnell stops blocking the HEROES Act, which includes my bill to provide direct municipal aid.
Steinhardt's lie is part of a pattern of GOP politicians deliberately spreading misinformation that harms people: whether promoting quack cures, downplaying the risks of opening the economy, denigrating vote-by-mail, or telling their constituents they're not getting stimulus aid.
Meanwhile, the president telling you to vote in person votes by mail himself; the FOX News hosts telling you to party in bars broadcast from the safety of their homes; and the guy telling you to be angry you're not getting gov't aid is cashing gov't checks.
So: Doug Steinhardt can say what he wants about me and @JoshGottheimer - we'll thrash him in November anyway. But I'm not going to stand for misinformation that misleads and hurts my constituents.
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