I saw this story earlier today, where McConnell was on Hugh Hewitt’s show and briefly mentioned how impeachment distracted the government from the coronavirus threat in January. I didn’t think much of it. But then I watched reporters ask Trump about it and I see articles being written about it and people responding to the articles as if McConnell was making excuses for Trump or something. He wasn’t!
McConnell was simply asked by Hugh Hewitt if Tom Cotton was the first one to recognize the coronavirus threat and here’s what he said:
He was first, and I think Tom was right on the mark. And it 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. But Tom figured this out early, and he was absolutely right.
That’s literally all he said. McConnell was talking about the Senate, he was talking about Tom Cotton. Trump never even came up in that part of the conversation.
But here’s how The Hill reported it:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday blamed the Democrats’ push to impeach President Trump in January for distracting the Trump administration from the threat posed by the coronavirus.
“It came up while we were tied down in the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government because everything every day was all about impeachment,” McConnell said in an interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show.”
Trump has come under sharp criticism for the nation’s slow response to the spreading pandemic, especially for the shortage of coronavirus testing kits when the virus first spread to the United States.
McConnell never mentioned the Trump administration at all. He only said ‘government’, and the last time I checked the Senate is part of the government and they were very much embroiled in the impeachment hoax.
That’s led to idiots blathering about it like this:
I think @senatemajldr and all of these politicians should be prosecuted when this is done for the lies which cost thousands of deaths. He knows Trump is a con man who lied to everyone to delay bad news and that led to thousands of additional deaths. They are all murderers. https://t.co/T0JPLOi8g0
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) March 31, 2020
Appears @senatemajldr McConnnell can no longer defend the initial catastrophic failure of @realDonaldTrump in addressing the #COVID19 pandemic. He now blames impeachment. Except the trial ended Feb 5. And both @realDonaldTrump & @GOP continued to downplay the virus after Feb 5. https://t.co/yeUnvpG1tI
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 31, 2020
The lesson? Don’t use the power and prestige of the presidency to coerce foreign leaders to investigate your political opponents—thus forcing Congress to impeach you. Then, you won’t be distracted and totally botch a pandemic…. https://t.co/zIAOkXgLQK
— Matt Lewis (@mattklewis) March 31, 2020
“Sorry the president was bad at his job. He was too busy being put on trial because he’s bad at his job.” https://t.co/id5ZNpgRRl
— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) March 31, 2020
The list goes on, but this is just an example of how the media can easily twist something someone said into something they never really said at all.