Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is pointing his finger at who he believes is responsible for the deaths caused in the U.S. due to COVID-19.
With over 197,000 deaths due to the virus, as of Friday morning, the former vice president placed blame on President Donald Trump during a CNN town hall on Thursday evening.
āIf the president had done his job, had done his job from the beginning, all the people would still be alive,ā Biden said at the town hall in Pennsylvania.
He continued, āAll the people. Iām not making this up. Just look at the data. Look at the data.ā
However, news outlets pushed back on Bidenās claim, including The Washington Post, who wrote, āActually, Biden is making this up. There is no data to support this, even if the president had moved rapidly in January to deal with the coronavirus and been able to persuade the Chinese leadership to be more forthcoming about the situation.ā
The Post also notes that even countries that have been praised for their coronavirus response have had deaths due to the virus.
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During the town hall, Biden also called on Trump to step down due to the presidentās coronavirus response, as IJR reported.
After claiming that Trumpās response to the pandemic is āall about one thing, the stock marketā as well as his reelection, Biden said, āThereās not been a time theyāve not been able to step up. The president should step down.ā
Trump recently came under fire from Democratic leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), after the president blamed Democratic states for the coronavirus death toll.
After mentioning initial predictions for the coronavirus death toll in the U.S., Trump said at a news briefing Wednesday, āIf you take the blue states out, weāre at a level that I donāt think anybody in the world would be at. Weāre really at a very low level. But some of the states, they were blue states and blue state-managed.ā
Schumer called Trumpās remarks āso callous, so uninformed, so egomaniacal, so divisiveā and said he felt ācompelled to respond.ā
āIf you close your eyes and pretend that half the country doesnāt exist, maybe some might think you didnāt do such a spectacularly awful job,ā the Democratic lawmaker said on the Senate floor Thursday.
He asked, āWhat kind of person looks at the number of dead citizens in the country he is supposed to lead, and in an attempt to glamorize himself dismisses every American who died in a state that didnāt support the president politically.ā
Schumer added, āWhat a disgrace, itās monstrous. What kind of demented person would say that those Americans live donāt count?ā
