Democrats bad faith impeachment effort was distraction while coronavirus threatened

Miranda Divine:

It’s obvious the Democrats’ impeachment obsession was a damaging distraction for President Trump, as Mitch McConnell says. That was the whole point of it.

But what we now know is the corona­virus outbreak emerged right in the middle of the impeachment. The administration was distracted at a crucial time.

“I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment,″ the Senate majority leader said Tuesday.

The Democrats’ motive was to weaken the president before the election and hamper his ability to implement his agenda. It wasn’t about principle or the national interest. It was a trivial game to enhance their electoral prospects and appease their Trump-hating base.

Even Democrats like Andrew Cuomo said as much. Back in September, the New York governor blamed “leftist” Democrats and described the inquiry as a “governmental shutdown.”

“It’s a long and unproductive road. Where does it go ultimately? Nowhere . . . The problem with that is it means nothing else is really going to get done of substance between now and then, and we have so many real issues to deal with.”

Truer words were never spoken.

Less than eight weeks later, on Nov. 17, a 55-year-old man became the first confirmed case in China of the novel coronavirus, according to the South China Morning Post.

Public impeachment hearings had begun three days earlier and dominated the media.

The timeline is instructive.

On Dec. 1, the next confirmed patient in China fell ill.

On Dec. 13, the House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment.

Three days later, a 65-year-old man was admitted to hospital in Wuhan with a lung infection.

On Dec. 18, Democrats in the House of Representatives impeached Trump.

On Dec. 29, Dr. Ai Fen, the head of emergency at Wuhan Central Hospital, alerted her superiors to seven cases of unexplained pneumonia. She was reprimanded and silenced, according to “60 Minutes Australia.”

On Jan. 1, eight Chinese doctors who had posted information about the illness on social media were detained, and laboratories were ordered to destroy virus samples.

On Jan. 3, Li Wenliang, a Wuhan ophthalmologist, was forced to sign an official confession that he had spread false “rumors” about the virus. He would later die of the illness.

China’s coverup was in full swing.

On Jan. 6, John Bolton announced he was prepared to testify at Trump’s impeachment trial, and the media went into overdrive.

The next day, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel warning about “pneumonia of an unknown etiology” in Wuhan.

On Jan. 14, the World Health Organization, doing China’s bidding, tweeted that Chinese authorities “have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.”
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The timeline shows the Democrats' impeachment effort was sent to the Senate just as it was becoming clear that the epidemic was spreading.  Now Democrats are saying that Trump did not act soon enough while they were downplaying the virus and encouraging people to attend large gatherings.