McConnell thwarts Trump bid for $2,000 virus relief checks
SUSAN CORNWELL and DAVID MORGAN U.S. Senate leader Mitch McConnell has dealt a likely death blow to President Donald Trump's bid to boost coronavirus aid to Americans, declining to schedule a swift Senate vote on a bill to raise relief checks to $2,000 from $600. McConnell said on the Senate floor that a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which sought to meet fellow Republican Trump's demands for bigger checks, "has no realistic path to quickly pass the Senate." McConnell, who controls the Senate's agenda and opposes the increase in aid, had introduced a competing bill combining the…