The Democratic frontrunner rejected Trump’s isolationism and sought to project strength a day after the president’s speech sparked confusion.
Joe Biden delivered a call for swift and urgent action to combat the coronavirus outbreak on Thursday, in a speech that rebuked the Trump administration’s isolationist response and sought to preview how he would steer the nation through a crisis as its president.
The 2020 Democratic frontrunner offered a detailed new roadmap for stemming the virus, emphasizing the need for solidarity and championing science.
He also painted a broader vision to restore the U.S. as a world leader — one day after President Donald Trump announced a shutdown of foreign travel from most European countries during an Oval Office address filled with errors that shook already troubled financial markets and confused the public.
“We’ll never fully solve this problem if we’re unwilling to look beyond our own borders and engage fully with the rest of the world,” Biden said. “We have to confront the coronavirus everywhere.”
Across the nearly 20-minute speech from Wilmington, Del., Biden emphasized the need for a coordinated national response and warned that fighting the outbreak will require dramatic changes to daily life. He encouraged Americans to heed the advice of public health officials and said his own campaign is taking precautions — including “reimagining” the format of events planned in Chicago and Miami.
But Biden, who has touted himself for months as the candidate who can beat Trump, also used the speech to challenge the president directly over his rhetoric and policies, and taking specific issue with Trump’s labeling of the coronavirus as a “foreign virus.”
“Downplaying it, being overly dismissive or spreading disinformation is only going to hurt us and further advantage the spread of the disease,” Biden said. “But neither should we panic or fall back on xenophobia.”
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Joe Biden delivered a call for swift and urgent action to combat the coronavirus outbreak, in a speech that rebuked the Trump administration’s isolationist response and sought to preview how he would steer the nation through a crisis as its presidenthttps://t.co/xFrYlohSgT
— POLITICO (@politico) March 12, 2020
Not sure I know what Biden’s plan really is. Sounds like a lot of platitudes and throwing plenty of money at the problem.
He is right though about Trump’s attempts to downplay the virus and spread misinformation. Haven’t trusted the federal government for years, but with regard to this virus, Trump and everyone else in DC have lost all credibility.
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