It’s time for Nancy Pelosi to stop playing hard ball.

It gives me no pleasure to say so. Like many progressives, I’ve taken a lot of delight in watching the House speaker and her fellow Democrats stand their ground these past few months as they’ve negotiated with the White House (and, more indirectly, with feckless Senate Republicans) over the next batch of coronavirus aid. Unlike previous rounds of relief talks, where they were willing to give up key demands in the name of passing something to avert looming catastrophe, Pelosi & Co. have simply refused to cave on issues like providing support to state and local governments, working from the premise that, this time around, a bad bill would be worse than no bill at all.

But now time is running out, and discussions appear to be just barely hanging on to the rails. Last week, Pelosi rejected a $1.6 trillion offer from the White House. The sides seemed ready to continue haggling afterward. But on Tuesday, Donald Trump abruptly announced that the was pulling the plug on talks until after the election, and told Senate Republicans to focus in the meantime on confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.