Joe Biden suggested that it is not productive to say that President Trump is lying when he says something inaccurate about the response to the coronavirus pandemic, despite his campaign repeatedly pointing out “lies” from the president about the respiratory virus in recent weeks.
“The American people don’t want us in a political fight, and I want no part of a political fight either,” the former vice president said Tuesday on The View. “But when the president says things that, in fact, turn out not to be accurate, we should not say, ‘You’re lying.’ We should say, ‘Mr. President, that’s not the fact, here’s the deal.'”
Biden, 77, gave an example. “When he said we had all the tests available. Well, they weren’t available. Now, maybe he didn’t know they weren’t available, but it’s important for people to know that they weren’t available yet.”
However, the former vice president’s campaign has repeatedly called Trump a liar when critiquing the president’s response to the global health crisis.
“President Trump neglected, minimized, and lied about this virus,” Biden said in a statement published Sunday. “President Trump’s dithering on preparing us for this global pandemic and his lies about his response to this dangerous crisis is one of the most unjustifiable failures of presidential leadership in American history.”
Also on Sunday, a Biden tweet said that Trump lied about the availability of tests, calling it a “disgrace” — a much different tone than Biden had about the same inaccuracy on The View on Tuesday.
[Related: ‘Pointing out where there’s disagreement’: Biden claims he is not criticizing Trump]
On March 6th, Donald Trump claimed: “Anybody that wants a test can get a test.”
That was a flat-out lie then, and it’s still not true today. It’s a disgrace.
We need to ensure everyone who needs a test can get one free of charge. Period.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 22, 2020
In another Sunday tweet accusing Trump of being untruthful about his planned use of the Defense Production Act, Biden said: “Mr. President — stop lying and start acting. Use the full extent of your authorities, now, to ensure that we are producing all essential goods and delivering them where they need to go.”
Biden has often said on the campaign trail that Trump frequently lies, with one common stump speech line calling for voters to choose “truth over lies.”
