Star-Ledger: Second stimulus check update: Here’s McConnell’s price for approving your $2,000 payment

Hours after blocking legislation to increase the direct payments in the coronavirus stimulus legislation to $2,000, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill to approve the larger checks but only if Congress acceded to two other demands of President Donald Trump.

As the price for the $2,000 checks, McConnell’s bill would establish a commission to investigate the 2020 election, which Trump continues to maintain without any evidence was fraudulent and he actually was re-elected.

The legislation also would repeal the law, known as Section 230. that protects social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook from lawsuits over content posted by their users. Trump has railed against the companies because they have flagged or deleted false postings by him and his allies. …

Dozens of judges, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have thrown out Trump campaign lawsuits, saying that they had no proof of wrongdoing. Even McConnell acknowledged Biden’s victory after the Electoral College cast its votes Dec. 14.

“You’ve got election officials all over the country and national security officials saying that it was a clean election and the effort to have an unnecessary investigation is just one to kowtow to the base and the president,” said David Vance, a spokesman for the watchdog group Common Cause.