Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in an opinion piece for the New York Times.
In the Sunday piece, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee detailed how he would start to reopen the United States as cases of the COVID-19 virus begin to level off. In his closing remarks, he knocked the Trump administration for its “failure to plan” for the pandemic.
“As we prepare to reopen America, we have to remember what this crisis has taught us: The administration’s failure to plan, to prepare, to honestly assess and communicate the threat to the nation led to catastrophic results,” Biden wrote. “We cannot repeat those mistakes.”
He continued, “We know what we have to do. We have the tools, expertise and, now, hard-won experience. The American people have already paid too high a price in illness, death and economic loss. This time, the White House has to get it right.”
Several others have criticized President Trump’s handling of the pandemic. The New York Times recently outlined the president’s response based on warnings he received in January from some members of his administration, who along with other public health officials felt he should have pushed for social distancing much earlier rather than downplaying the severity of the virus with optimistic goals, such as reopening by Easter.
While Biden claimed the Trump administration didn’t prepare for a pandemic, the president has continued to make the same argument about the Obama-Biden administration. Trump has repeatedly blamed his predecessor for leaving national stockpiles of ventilators below capacity. He also blamed previous administrations for implementing regulations that slowed the ability to roll out testing kits from private companies that could be confirmed by the states, rather than federal authorities.
After originally criticizing the decision as xenophobic, Biden did agree with Trump that it was a good decision to close travel from China to the U.S. when the outbreak started. The two also shared a phone call to discuss the pandemic last week, which both reported was a friendly exchange.
In his opinion piece, the former vice president noted that Trump has yet to release a plan for reopening after the pandemic. He wrote, “Millions are performing essential services at great personal risk, and millions more are staying at home, away from friends and extended family. In return, they want the answer to a simple question: What is the plan to safely reopen America? So far, the Trump administration hasn’t supplied an answer.”
The finger-pointing between the two administrations, however, doesn’t change the current reality of the pandemic. As of Sunday, the U.S. had more than 542,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 21,489 related deaths. More than 17 million U.S. citizens are newly jobless because of the coronavirus shutdown.
