Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell restructured his campaign into a meals effort for Kentuckians affected by coronavirus, as his opponent Amy McGrath has reportedly been running million-dollar attack ads on him during the pandemic.
“As Senator McConnell leads bipartisan efforts to help Kentuckians and all Americans cope with the impact of the coronavirus, Amy McGrath continues to run millions of dollars in false, negative political advertising designed to tear us apart. A candidate whose partisanship and ideology is so extreme that she cannot understand what people need in times of crisis is one that should not represent her political party, let alone the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” McConnell Senate Committee campaign manager Kevin Golden said in a statement.
“Team Mitch has suspended its voter contact program and is asking Kentuckians if we can be a resource to provide meals for those who are at-risk and cannot get a meal on their own during this difficult time,” Golden continued.
“We paused our entire voter contact program and turned it into an outreach effort for at-risk Kentuckians. Phone bank volunteers are now standing by as operators for folks who need help. Staff and volunteers who, under normal circumstances, would be fanning out across the state to canvass and distribute campaign literature have been now tasked with assisting the needy during this difficult time,” a McConnell campaign official told the Daily Caller.
The Senate is poised to pass a coronavirus bill to help provide money to businesses and citizens suffering from the deadly pandemic.
The House of Representatives on Monday passed a reworked coronavirus bill. The House approved the plan via unanimous consent. The House will now send the original coronavirus package plus a retooled version to the Senate. The Senate hopes to pass the legislation this week and send it to President Donald Trump.
Trump signed an $8.3 billion funding bill Friday to help fight coronavirus. That bill gives more than $3 billion for the research and development of vaccines. There is also $800 million for research for treatments. It also includes $2 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and $61 million to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to Yahoo Finance.
Trump held a press conference at the end of February discussing how the U.S. will deal with the disease and put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the task force.
The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic Wednesday.