Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Monday excoriated White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ off-handed admission that the Trump administration is “not going to control” the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 225,000 Americans.
While visiting a voter activation center in Chester, Pennsylvania on Monday afternoon, Biden began his remarks outside of the building by taking aim at Meadows’ admission that the Trump administration “wasn’t even trying anymore to deal with the pandemic.”
Biden then cited a Washington Post report that quoted Meadows’ remarks on Sunday and the COVID-19 outbreak among several of Pence’s aides that emerged over the weekend.
“The Washington Post headline says White House gives up on trying to slow virus spread — no caveats, just a deadly admission,” Biden said.
Biden went on to bash Trump’s characterization of himself as a “wartime president” who is “fighting a war against an invisible enemy” early on in the pandemic.
“I have been saying for months, as you well know, that he waved the white flag all the way back then. He wasn’t doing much at all,” Biden said. “Some people said I was being harsh, that I was being unfair. The White House is coming right out now and admitting what I said months ago was absolutely true.”
Noting that more than 220,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 under the Trump administration, Biden torched Trump for being “the worst possible president.”
“The worst possible person to try to lead us through this pandemic,” Biden added. “And I don’t think he just either doesn’t have any idea what to do or he just doesn’t care.”
Biden cited White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci’s recent acknowledgment that the President has not met with the team in months and Trump’s insistence that COVID-19 was “leveling out” amid surging cases nationwide.
The former VP then ripped Trump for pushing an unfounded conspiracy theory to his supporters during a campaign rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin on Saturday that “doctors get more money and hospitals get more money” if they say patients died from COVID-19 rather than a comorbidity.
“He suggested the doctors were inflating the numbers — catch this — because doctors get more money. What in the hell is the matter with this man?” Biden said. “A thousand doctors and nurses have given their lives trying to save lives. And he’s saying the reason they’re talking about testing is that they want to make more money.”
Biden added that more than 1,000 health care workers have lost their lives fighting COVID-19 before stating that “they’re not profiting, they’re dying.”
“And you remember, during the debate —well if you want to call it that — during the debate Trump said that we’re learning to live with this COVID,” Biden said, referring to his remarks during the final presidential debate last week. “No, he’s asking us to learn to die with it.”
Watch Biden’s remarks below:
Biden criticizes White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for admitting "we are not going to control the pandemic" pic.twitter.com/h2AefRrTQ0
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 26, 2020
