Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tried to leverage one of his strongest moments during the final debate to remind voters President Trump had failed in his COVID-19 response.
“We’re more than eight months into this crisis, and the president still doesn’t have a plan. He’s given up. He’s quit on you. He’s quit on your family. He’s quit on America. He just wants us to grow numb and resigned to the horrors of this death toll,” Biden said Friday in Delaware.
Repeating lines from Thursday’s second and last debate of the 2020 election cycle, the two-term vice president and 36-year Delaware senator criticized Trump for refusing to concede he and his administration could have handled the pandemic better.
“If this is a success, what does a failure look like?” Biden asked, referring to how more than 223,000 people had died in the United States from the coronavirus.
During his remarks, Biden attempted once more to explain how his proposed mask mandate would work. He said he would first urge governors to make face coverings mandatory before turning to mayors and other local officials if state executives declined to act. He would then impose masks in all federal buildings.
“Mask wearing is not a political statement. It’s a scientific imperative,” he said.
If elected, Biden also promised to reach out to mayors and governors so he could better understand what federal support they need, including protective gear and facilitating equal access to treatments and therapies. He added his goal would be to test as many people nationwide each day as are currently being tested every week, a seven-fold increase.
“I believe in testing. Donald Trump does not,” he said.
Leaning into his closing message of unity, Biden dinged Trump for continuing to divide the country into a collection of red and blue states. The president has ripped Democratic governors in particular for their management of the crisis.
“I won’t let four years of Donald Trump rob us of our most fundamental American qualities: our hope for the future and our faith in ourselves,” he said.
