Biden on potentially working with Trump on coronavirus response
2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden addresses offering advice to the president on coronavirus during virtual briefing.
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President Trump blasted Joe Biden on Monday for floating a “virtual” Democratic National Convention this summer, while questioning “what ever happened” to the phone call the former vice president offered to discuss a coronavirus response strategy.
“Joe Biden wanted the date for the Democrat National Convention moved to a later time period. Now he wants a ‘Virtual’ Convention, one where he doesn’t have to show up,” Trump tweeted. “Gee, I wonder why?”
He added: “Also, what ever happened to that phone call he told the Fake News he wanted to make to me?”
The president’s tweet comes after his likely general election opponent suggested a virtual convention might be considered.
“We’re going to have to do a convention,” Biden told ABC News. “We may have to do a virtual convention. I know I think we should be thinking about that right now.”
He added: “What we do between now and then is going to dictate a lot of that as well.”
For now, the convention is simply posted by a month. The Democratic National Committee announced last week that they would push off the convention, slated to begin on July 13, to the week of Aug. 17 due to COVID-19 concerns.
BIDEN SAYS DEMOCRATS MAY HAVE TO HOLD A VIRTUAL CONVENTION DUE TO CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
Meanwhile, Fox News first reported last week that Biden offered to have a phone call with Trump directly to discuss a strategy to combat coronavirus.
When asked whether he would be receptive to a call with the likely Democratic presidential nominee, Trump said: “Oh sure, absolutely. I’d love to speak with him.”
“I always found him to be a nice guy. I don’t know him very well, frankly, but I think he’s probably a nice guy,” Trump said last week. “If he’d like to call, I’d absolutely take his call.”
EXCLUSIVE: BIDEN OFFERS TO CALL TRUMP AT THE WHITE HOUSE TO DISCUSS CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE STRATEGY
Biden’s offer of a phone call came after Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway challenged him to stop criticizing the Trump administration’s efforts and instead “call the White House today and offer some support.”
Minutes after Trump acknowledged and accepted the former vice president’s offer, Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield told Fox News: “Our teams will be in touch and we w,ill arrange a call.”
Biden, on Monday, replied to the president's tweet, appearing to keep the offer of a chat on the table.
"Mr. President, I hope we can gather in Milwaukee, but that is going to depend on you stepping up and doing what needs to be done to handle this pandemic," Biden tweeted, before plugging his campaign page outlining his own response.
He added: "Happy to discuss anytime."
A source familiar told Fox News on Monday that the Biden campaign did not hear from the White House, despite him saying he was happy to talk.
The source told Fox News that the Biden campaign will reach out to the White House on Monday to try to get a phone call set up.
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