Republicans on Tuesday were called out for a new talking point that blames impeachment for President Donald Trump’s lack of early action on the novel coronavirus outbreak.

According to former Republican strategist Rick Wilson, GOP sources said that there is en effort to deflect the criticism of Trump by citing impeachment.

About the time Wilson revealed the new talking point, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell used it during an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

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McConnell claimed that impeachment had “diverted” the government from dealing with the virus.

Commenters on Twitter pointed out that impeachment was caused by the president’s lawless behavior. Others noted that Trump continued to play golf during the impeachment and Senate trial, which ended in early February.

Read some of the tweets from verified accounts below.

McConnell just said impeachment diverted the attention of the government from the coronavirus in January. Did impeachment make Trump fire the US pandemic response team in 2018? Did impeachment make Trump say on February 28 that there would be zero cases in a few days? — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 31, 2020

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Astonishingly stupid defense/excuse by McConnell. The CDC,HHS, etc weren’t delayed,distracted by the impeachment hearings warned the administration repeatedly. Absurd for him to says this. Shows Mitch for exactly who and what he is. Dreadful. — Adam Dorn aka Mocean Worker. (@moceanworker) March 31, 2020

Don’t spend a second debating McConnell’s claim impeachment distracted Trump. Or on Trump’s TV ratings tweets. Or on Trump’s bigoted labeling of the virus. It’s all intended to distract you from the real story. Trump’s lies and mismanagement are killing Americans. — Dave Pell (@davepell) March 31, 2020

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Not to mention, just read Trump’s twitter feed during that time – you will see a lot of distractions that have nothing to do with impeachment. — Sasha Stone (@AwardsDaily) March 31, 2020

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Republicans will use impeachment as their scapegoat, but here’s what they can never escape: Donald Trump ignored the warnings, refused to prepare, and lied about it for weeks. We’re dying & losing our jobs because we weren’t ready. That’s on Trump. He owns our awful response. — Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) March 31, 2020

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While his sycophants are rolling out the line that impeachment was a distraction that hurt the coronavirus response, the president is out here proving that he can think about more than one thing at a time. It’s a Passover miracle. — Gary Legum (@GaryLegum) March 31, 2020

A source at a conservative firm doing Trump/RNC work tells me the Message of the Day is “Impeachment kept Trump from focusing on the virus.” This person and I went from great friends (2000s to 2016) then frenemies (2017-2019) and now this person is PISSED. More to follow. — Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) March 31, 2020

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I consider the “the US is facing a crisis because impeachment distracted the President” line so stupid as to be unworthy of comment. — Steve Metz (@steven_metz) March 31, 2020

Yes the false impeachment talking point of the day. Predictable. Trump forever the victim. Never ask him to be accountable. Don’t you get bored listening to yourself?…I know the answer — ‘liberal media’ bleh bleh bleh. Advice: Have a thought of your own. The cult’s collapsing. — Dan Janison (@Danjanison) March 31, 2020

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“Trump was so distracted by impeachment he couldn’t focus on Corona!” Except when he was golfing about a dozen times between January 1st and March 8th. Anyone want to fill in the dates? — Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) March 31, 2020

The narrative that @realDonaldTrump was too distracted by Impeachment to do his job and focus on a devastating virus that might kill millions is not the hill the GOP should want to die on… — Pedro Rafael Rosado (@prrosado) March 31, 2020

“Trump was so distracted by impeachment that he couldn’t focus on the coronavirus.” Then maybe he shouldn’t have committed impeachable conduct? Just spitballing here. — Max Boot (@MaxBoot) March 31, 2020

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Impeachment didn’t keep Trump from caring about the virus. Trump kept Trump from caring about the virus. — Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) March 31, 2020

What’s absolutely maddening about this is that the impeachment “distraction” ended on Feb. 5, 54 days ago. — Dan Murphy (@bungdan) March 31, 2020

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Trump is now trying to convince America that he couldn’t focus on coronavirus because of impeachment. From January to March of this year, Trump took *6* different weekend golf vacations. — Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) March 31, 2020

“I don’t get involved. I let the lawyers handle it.” — Trump, endlessly about impeachment — Jamie O’Grady ⚡ (@JamieOGrady) March 31, 2020

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Don’t even try this “impeachment distracted him from corona virus!” hook, GOP.

Seriously. Jesus. Just don’t. — Peter Zizzo (@pzizzo) March 31, 2020

Impeachment didn’t interrupt Trump’s golf schedule but Republicans would have you believe it rendered him incapable of taking a pandemic seriously. — Joshua Holland 🔥 (@JoshuaHol) March 31, 2020

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According to @senatemajldr the impeachment trial diverted government attention from the growing coronavirus. That’s like saying you forgot to get dressed this morning because you were diverted by breakfast. — Gideon Emery (@gideonemery) March 31, 2020