WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Donald Trump's impeachment trial distracted the federal government from paying attention to the novel coronavirus as it reached the United States in January.
McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that the deadly virus "came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial.
And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.'' The Trump administration has been severely criticized for its slow response to the spreading pandemic, especially for the shortage of coronavirus testing kits when the infection first spread to the U.S.