Sen. Chris Coons is defending his longtime friend and colleague Joe Biden, now the Democratic presidential nominee, from GOP claims that he’d be weak on China.
When asked about Biden not mentioning the threat of China at the Democratic National Convention last week, the Delaware Democrat said Biden’s made several mentions of China’s growing global threat while on the campaign trail. Coons also said President Trump had once been the one who gushed over the Chinese government.
“He (Biden) has detailed plans for how to strengthen our global network of alliances to effectively stand up to China,” Coons said on Fox News Sunday. “I’ll remind you, back in January and February as the pandemic was spreading around the world, it was Donald Trump who was saying positive things, cozying up to Xi Jinping, and it was Joe Biden who was sounding the alarm bells about this pandemic.”
Coons also condemned Trump’s response to the pandemic, suggesting his strategy to blame China is a deflection from attention to his own domestic failures.
“You can’t simply blame China as a way to get our country out of this pandemic and the recession and the chaos that’s resulted from President Trump’s failed response,” Coons said.
Concerns Biden’s vow to shut down the country to stop the coronavirus, Coons said the Democratic nominee would be one to listen to public health experts on the matter. The pandemic, which depressed the economy and sent millions of workers on unemployment, has led to more than 5 million COVID-19 infections in the United States and has been associated with than 175,000 deaths.
“What Joe Biden said there was he will listen to public health experts,” Coons said. “It will listen to Dr. (Anthony) Fauci, he will listen to leaders from the NIH and the CDC. That’s something that Donald Trump is demonstrably failed to do.”
