A senior adviser for Joe Biden’s campaign pointed to federal coronavirus guidelines as a main reason the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has not held a press conference in nearly three months.
Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace pressed Symone Sanders on why Biden has been largely absent from the trail during the coronavirus pandemic, including an 80-day period without a news conference, mostly sticking to virtual events from his basement.
“Chris, to be clear, Vice President Biden does interviews, takes questions from the press regularly. And, yes, in March we were — we have adjusted to this new normal like most people in America. We have been campaigning virtually, but just because we are campaigning virtually does not mean we are not meeting actual voters across the country,” Sanders said.
“Vice President Biden has campaigned in Michigan and Florida. Dr. [Jill] Biden has campaigned in Colorado and Texas. So, the reality is what we have been doing is following CDC guidelines, Chris,” she said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines have preached social distancing in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus, which is particularly a threat to older people. Biden, 77, is in a high-risk category. Still, that has not stopped President Trump and other officials from holding in-person events. Trump held a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday despite warnings from local officials and a spike in COVID-19 cases in the state.
Wallace again asked Sanders why Biden has not held a press conference in the past few months.
“As many of y’all in the national press and in the Beltway press are well aware, we take pride in prioritizing local media, and so the vice president is doing local media interviews. He’s doing national media interviews, and he is taking questions from reporters,” Sanders said.
Wallace noted that Trump has claimed that Biden has no clue what his campaign is doing and that the campaign has been responsible for the written responses the former vice president has sent to reporters. Sanders called Trump’s claims “despicable” and said Biden is in control and leading the campaign.
“This is just despicable, Chris. Honestly, it truly is,” Sanders said. “The fact that folks are parroting this unfounded salacious lie from the president and his campaign that Vice President Biden isn’t up to the challenge. He’s absolutely up to it. He’s absolutely up to it. Vice President Biden will tell you if he were sitting right here that he can’t wait to see Donald Trump on a debate stage and can’t wait to campaign with him.”
