After his decisive victory in the South Carolina primary, former Vice President Joe Biden made the Sunday morning circuit, appearing on both ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos and Fox News Sunday, with host Chris Wallace. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is also vying for the Democratic nomination, made an appearance on ABC News. The 2020 election and the coronavirus outbreak were the topics of the day.
Biden And Sanders Take On Trump’s Response to Coronavirus
Sanders and Biden had much to say in their conversations with George Stephanopoulos, but there was a common theme: Both candidates made misleading statements about President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak. After the president announced that the first casualty of the virus passed away in Washington earlier this week, progressive politicians and their allies in the corporate press pounced on the opportunity to weaponize the disease.
Joe Biden (left) and Bernie Sanders (right)
Biden told Stephanopoulos that his response to the outbreak would have been “fundamentally different” if he were in the Oval Office. He slammed the administration for cutting funding to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and placing Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the team addressing the illness. “This has been outrageous the way they proceeded,” he said. “They should let the scientists speak.” Biden was repeating his claim about the CDC that he made during the South Carolina debates.
The former vice president then took issue with President Trump for remarks he made about the virus during a rally in South Carolina. Referencing the story in which Trump claimed the coronavirus issue was a “hoax,” Biden said, “This is not a Democratic hoax. This is incompetence on the part of the president of the United States at the expense of the country and the world.”
But there seems to be a problem with two of the former vice president’s claims. Allegations that Trump had cut CDC funding and referred to coronavirus as a “hoax” are deceptions that have been debunked.
The Associated Press fact-checked the claims made by Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and other Democrats regarding supposed cuts to the CDC. “They’re both wrong to say the agencies have seen their money cut. Bloomberg is repeating the false allegation in a new ad that states the U.S. is unprepared for the virus because of ‘reckless cutes’ to the CDC,” the authors wrote.
When it comes to the comments Trump made at CPAC about the coronavirus; it appears Biden and his comrades on the left are being blatantly deceptive. A simple viewing of the video showcasing the event reveals that the president was referring to the Democrats’ weaponization of the coronavirus scare as a “hoax,” not the illness itself.
During his appearance on the show, Sanders also lambasted Trump for his reaction to the virus, accusing the president of trying to use the story to get attention. “How pathetic is it that in the midst of an international health care crisis, you’ve got a president running into South Carolina trying to steal some media attention away from Democrats,” he said.
HHS Secretary Criticizes Politicization of Coronavirus
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar also appeared on ABC News to discuss the coronavirus. But Stephanopoulos, like the rest of his colleagues, couldn’t resist the temptation to repeat the “hoax” lie once again. He asked the secretary if he believed Trump’s use of the term was appropriate. Azar responded:
“Well, he’s talking about the partisan sniping that we’re seeing. And that’s just — it’s unnecessary. We don’t need to have this made a political issue. We’re in a public health crisis here. We need to all be banding together.”
Azar continued, explaining that they are currently working on passing an “emergency supplemental bill in Congress,” and that the administration is getting “bipartisan support,” in dealing with the matter.
Currently, the coronavirus has infected 87,000 people worldwide, including 72 in the United States. Nearly 3,000 have died from the illness, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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