Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) assertion that the impeachment effort diverted the attention of the Trump administration from preparing for the coronavirus outbreak is “false.”

Mitchell asked, “Mitch McConnell said on Hugh Hewitt radio program that one of the reasons why the federal government was not prepared with test kits and all of the rest was because it was preoccupied with the Senate impeachment trial. Do you think it’s fair for the Republican leader to be blaming the administration’s failures to prepare adequately on impeachment?”

Sanders said, “No, I certainly don’t. We have a president who should have listened to what the scientists were telling us, what was common knowledge all over the world, that there was a pandemic coming. I think it is clear. He was on television a million times saying don’t worry about it. It’s going to go away by April. It’s not such a big deal. We have very few cases. He totally minimized the danger facing the people of our country, and that has nothing to do with what was going on in Washington.”

He added, “So it’s—you know, I think a very false statement from McConnell’s point of view.”

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