NBC News host Chuck Todd asked Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Sunday if he thinks “there is blood on [President Donald Trump’s] hands” over his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Todd was referencing Biden’s remarks that the president’s alleged “slow response” in managing the crisis and his supposed “failure to get going right away.”
“I think that’s a little too harsh,” Biden responded on “Meet the Press.” “Someone … used the phrase that the president just thinks out loud. He should stop thinking out loud and start thinking deeply.”(RELATED: Trump: Biden ‘Couldn’t Tell You’ What Xenophobia Means)
Biden continued: “He should start listening to the scientists before he speaks. He should listen to the health experts. He should listen to his economists.”
The former vice president suggested Trump should now be focusing on the implementation of the $2.2 trillion phase 3 coronavirus stimulus bill and how payments will be delivered to American families.
“So we should be right now thinking about how do we get those small business loans out the door … You should focus on making sure we’re in a situation where we’ll be able to see to it that unemployment benefits can get to people. What is the IRS doing to get the $1200 checks to people? That’s where the focus should be and it should be laser focused.” (RELATED: Karl Rove: ‘Unbelievable’ Joe Biden Is Fundraising Off Of Coronavirus)
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news briefing on the administration’s response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci listen at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 21, 2020. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts –
Biden acknowledged that “the coronavirus is not the president’s fault, but the slow response, the failure to get going right away, the inability to do the things that needed to be done quickly — they are things that can’t continue. We’re going to go through another phase of this, and we have to be ahead of the curve not behind the curve.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical expert on the coronavirus task force, has credited the president with having the foresight, early in the coronavirus outbreak, to close the border to Chinese visitors.
