Chicago City Wire

Republicans blasted Democrats for pursuing stimulus checks for prisoners as part of the COVID relief bill.

“@SenatorDurbin & @SenDuckworth voted to give stimulus checks to murderers,” was a tweet posted by the Illinois Republican Party.

“Shameful,” was another word they added to the tweet.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) had also publicly said his piece, tweeting: “Senate Democrats just voted to give stimulus checks to criminals in prison.”

“They haven’t lost their jobs, they aren’t worried about paying rent or buying groceries,” Cotton continued. “Another example of the unrelated spending in the Democrats’ partisan slush fund.”

Cotton, in an interview, said the Democrats had a chance to stop checks from going to prisoners, “from going to Boston bombers,” but declined.

“They had a chance to stop checks from going to schools that are closed, and not even teaching their kids in-person, they turned it down,” Cotton told Fox and Friends.

Every prisoner in the country, if they have a tax form filed is eligible to get a check under this bill, according to the senator.

The senator also said in a tweet that “On March 6 at 10:12am, the Senate voted on an amendment to exclude prisoners—like the Boston Bomber—from getting stimulus checks. Every Democrat voted to send checks to prisoners, and every Republican voted to stop prisoners from getting checks.”