Pelosi: Trump and McConnell ‘should not try to hide behind’ impeachment excuse over coronavirus response

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “should not try to hide behind an excuse” in response to the suggestion from both the President and the Kentucky Republican that impeachment distracted the US government from the growing coronavirus crisis.

“I think that’s an admission that perhaps the President and the majority leader cannot handle the job,” Pelosi told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview.

“We have a life and death situation in our country and they should not try to hide behind an excuse for why they did not take action, but it does admit that they did not take action,” Pelosi said, adding, “Right now we have to work together to get the job done.”

In an interview on Tuesday with radio host Hugh Hewitt, McConnell said that the crisis “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.”

During a press briefing on Tuesday, Trump echoed that argument, saying that impeachment “probably did” distract him from responding to the coronavirus outbreak.

“I think I handled it very well, but I guess it probably did (distract me),” Trump said. “I mean, I got impeached. I think, you know, I certainly devoted a little time to thinking about it.”

He added, “Did it divert my attention? I think I’m getting A+’s for the way I handled myself during a phony impeachment, OK? … But certainly, I guess, I thought of it and I think I probably acted — I don’t think I would have done any better had I not been impeached, OK?”

Pelosi on ‘phase four’ coronavirus response: ‘We have to be ready’

House Democrats are already outlining what they would like to see in a “phase four” coronavirus legislative response, but McConnell said on Tuesday “we’ll have to wait and see” when asked about the possibility of the next legislative steps.

Pelosi said on Wednesday that Congress will have to wait to enact new legislation given that members are now back in their home districts and states as the pandemic continues to rage, but argued that lawmakers should be ready to go when they return.

“The fact is that we will be waiting because we are out of session because of shelter in place and other realities of life, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be ready,” she said.

“We know already that we’ll need more for state and local government. We know already that we’ll need more for the National Institutes of Health. We also know that there were items that we could not get in the first three bills,” she said. “We need to do much more as well as invest in the recovery.”

“It is going to be a number of weeks because we’re not here, so rather than putting it off further, why aren’t we working together? That’s the way I like to do it, just have the four corners — House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans — putting together the bill again with the President’s folks at the table to see what he would be willing to sign, so that we’re not losing time,” she said.

“We have to be ready, we have to be ready,” she added.

Pelosi also said in her interview that she would like to see every state implement stay-at-home-orders.

“It works. It works, and that’s why the governors are doing it and they’re seeing a return on that initiative,” Pelosi said. “That is the only way we’re going to contain the virus.”

“I would prayerfully hope that to avoid death, illness in families that they would do that. Yes, I’d like to see that,” she said.

This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday.