Biden calls out Trump's inaction on coronavirus
Former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on President Trump's coronavirus response.
Joe Biden took aim at President Trump on Wednesday as a commander-in-chief who “doesn’t command anything in this fight against COVID-19.”
“The storm we’re facing today is unlike any we’ve seen in our lifetimes. More than 130,000 people dead. Dead. Because of the coronavirus,” the former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee stressed in a virtual speech to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
And pointing to the president, Biden charged that “he’s not changed anything. This pandemic is still raging.”
CONFIRMED CORONAVIRUS CASES IN U.S. TOP 3 MILLION
Biden spoke a couple of hours after the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 3 million on Wednesday. The U.S. reached the latest milestone just 28 days after reaching 2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to statistics gathered by Johns Hopkins University.
Tuesday witnessed the highest daily spike in coronavirus cases since the pandemic reached the U.S., after more than 60,000 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed across the country over a 24-hour period. Nearly half of all new cases in the country over the past few days were documented in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.
And earlier this week, the nation passed another grim milestone, as the death toll from the coronavirus topped 130,000.
Biden – in a statement earlier in the day - called the surpassing of 3 million confirmed coronavirus cases “another sad reminder of the cost our country is paying for President Trump’s failure to lead us through this crisis.”
Biden – who’s repeatedly criticized the president over the past couple of months for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic - charged that "while other countries safely re-open their economies and their citizens get back to work, businesses in America are being forced to shut down — again — as Donald Trump’s failures make countless workers and families face an uncertain future."
The presumptive Democratic nominee also jabbed at a president who appears to have played more golf so far in his tenure than any predecessor in recent history -- urging Trump that “before you tee up for yet another round of golf, there are steps we must take — now — to win this fight and save American lives.”
THE LATEST FROM FOX NEWS ON THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Since March, the president, his administration, and his re-election campaign have praised the federal government’s response to the pandemic.
"We've done a good job. I think we are going to be in two, three, four weeks ... I think we're going to be in very good shape," the president said in an interview Tuesday with Gray Television's Greta Van Susteren.
He described the recent spikes in new coronavirus cases as “fires” that would be put out.
The president on Monday tweeted “BREAKING NEWS: The Mortality Rate for the China Virus in the U.S. is just about the LOWEST IN THE WORLD! Also, Deaths in the U.S. are way down, a tenfold decrease since the Pandemic height (and, our Economy is coming back strong!).”
The drop in the daily death rate is welcome news, but the spikes in new cases are troubling – and have forced nearly two-dozen states to pause or reverse moves to reduce coronavirus restrictions aimed at jump-starting an economy that was temporarily flattened by the pandemic.
FAUCI WARNS U.S. STILL 'KNEE DEEP' IN CORONAVIRUS FIRST WAVE
On Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci - the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the most visible and well-known member of the president’s task force on the coronavirus - warned that “we are still knee-deep in this first wave” of the pandemic.
Biden, in his Wednesday comments, also pushed back at the president’s warning that a Democratic victory in November’s general election – coupled with the Democrats recapturing the Senate and holding the House – would cash Americans investment portfolios.
Trump and his campaign have targeted the former vice president for vowing to roll back the president’s tax cuts that were passed when the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress.
The former vice president spotlighted that his economic proposals are “likely to raise salaries, likely to increase work on infrastructure, invest more in the economy, it’s likely to grow the economy.”
Trump – on Monday – warned that “If you want your 401k’s and Stocks, which are getting close to an all time high (NASDAQ is already there), to disintegrate and disappear, vote for the Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats and Corrupt Joe Biden. Massive Tax Hikes - They will make you very poor, FAST!”
Fox News' Danielle Wallace contributed to this report
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