divert/distract attention

idiom

: to try to keep people from noticing or thinking about something

He was trying to divert/distract attention away from his friend's mistake.

Examples of divert/distract attention in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And even the Zoom call was kept private until after the polls closed, at the request of Wisconsin Democrats, who feared that reports of her involvement would divert attention from Elon Musk, the overriding target of the Democratic campaign. —New York Times, Mercury News, 13 Apr. 2025

If the underlying agenda is to highlight a specific topic, briefly state your facts and divert attention to a different topic. —Lieke Ten Brummelhuis, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2025

The Houthis are a mere distraction to divert attention and military resources, whereas Russia and Iran are the main concern. —Jonathan Sweet and Mark Toth, The Hill, 20 Mar. 2025

Schumer torched both Trump and the continuing resolution (CR) in an NYT op-ed explaining his decision but argued that Trump would only seize more power in a shutdown and distract attention from the policy failures that are hurting his popularity. —Dave Lawler, Axios, 15 Mar. 2025