Mark Hamill calls Mitch McConnell 'pure evil' for laughing about coronavirus aid

Actor who played Luke Skywalker said Republican senate leader’s laughter was ‘chilling’

As Mitch McConnell laughed about stalled Senate negations on coronavirus aid last week, Star Wars actor Mark Hamil labeled the Repubican “pure evil”.

Mr Hamil, a prominent Donald Trump critic best known as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, made the claim as Mr McConnell debated his Democratic opponent in Kentucky, Amy McGrath.

“McConnell’s gleeful laugh when McGrath talks about his failures on COVID is...what pure evil looks like,” he wrote on Twitter.

The senate leader, who was asked why a coronavirus stimulus had not been passed, laughed as Ms McGrath challenged him on the issue, and denied Republican senators were to blame.

“The House passed a bill in May,” she argued, “and the Senate went on vacation! You just don’t do that, you negotiate.”

“Senator, it is a national crisis. You knew that the coronavirus wasn’t gonna end at the end of July. If you want to call yourself a leader, you’ve got to get things done,” added Ms McGrath.

Mr McConnell, who laughed, has been in talks with Democrats since July, when the last coronavirus stimulus package ended.

Presented with a 1,800 page, $3 trillion (£2.3 trillion) bill passed by the Democrat-controlled House in May, Mr McConnell proclaimed it "dead on arrival" to the Republican-controlled Senate, where talks have stalled.

Millions of Americans have been left without additional support since those talks collapsed, as both sides blamed the other amid disagreement at the proposals.

On Saturday, the Republican announced two Senate votes this week on a smaller $500,000 package that Democrats have already dismissed as inadequate.

As well as millions unemployed, more than 2180,000 Americans have now lost their lives to the pandemic.