George Conway, a lawyer and adviser to an anti-Trump political action committee, accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of “gaslighting” the public with claims that the impeachment trial of President Trump distracted the White House from responding to the coronavirus.
“Look at the calendar. The impeachment trial ended on Feb. 5. In reality, it was over before it even started, thanks in large part to McConnell,” Conway wrote in an op-ed Wednesday for the Washington Post. “The only drama was about whether there’d be any witnesses — and that ended on Jan. 31, when the Senate voted not to hear testimony.”
Conway said that “left plenty of time to deal with the virus.”
During an interview with political pundit Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday, McConnell said the virus “came up while we were, you know, tied down in the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything, every day, was all about impeachment.”
Conway responded in the op-ed, “While some lawyers in the executive branch and Congress were working on impeachment around the clock, impeachment didn’t consume the government. Trump managed to get to Mar-a-Lago at least four times in January and February, working in a few rounds of golf along the way. He held five campaign rallies during the impeachment trial.”
The first confirmed case of the coronavirus in the United States was reported on Jan. 20. Trump banned travel to the U.S. from China by foreign nationals a week later. Health experts believe the virus originated in Wuhan, China.
Conway, who is married to Kellyanne Conway, a top White House adviser, frequently criticizes Trump’s policies through social media or on television.
Trump has referred to Conway as “Mr. Kellyanne Conway” and the “husband from hell.”
Conway turned his ire again on Senate Republicans for their decision to acquit Trump on both impeachment charges he faced.
“Just as his focus on himself, and his reelection, led him to extort Ukraine and lie about it, so, too, it led him to deceive the public about the coronavirus as well,” Conway said. “For Trump, it’s always about Trump and only Trump. If anything, it was McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans’ refusal to remove him, not the impeachment itself, that helped bring us to where we are today.”
