Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that the impeachment process that consumed Congress for months this winter distracted lawmakers from the looming coronavirus crisis.
“It came up while we were tied down with the impeachment trial,” McConnell said on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program. “And I think it diverted the attention of the government because everything every day was about impeachment.”
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The Senate impeachment trial of President Trump began on Jan. 16 and concluded Feb. 5. But Congress was consumed by the effort for weeks before that. The House impeached Trump on Dec. 18, and Senate lawmakers spent weeks waiting and negotiating the rules for the trial.
Senators received a classified coronavirus briefing from federal health officials on Jan. 24. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chair Lamar Alexander told lawmakers prior to the briefing: “The novel coronavirus is an emerging public health threat. Senators will have the opportunity to hear directly from senior government health officials regarding what we know about the virus so far and how our country is prepared to respond as the situation develops.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, also sounded the alarm in January, calling it “the biggest and most important story in the world,” and urging the government to take steps to stop the spread of the virus.
McConnell told Hewitt, “Tom was right on the mark. … Tom figured this out early, and he was absolutely right.”
