Joe Biden Says Trump’s Coronavirus Response Is One Reason Stock Market Is Falling: ‘This Is Not A Way To Run A Nation’
Former Vice President Joe Biden said that President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus outbreak is part of the reason global financial markets are crashing, and lit into Trump for “gaming the political impact” of the virus.
Biden was interviewed on Friday morning’s edition of CNN’s New Day, and anchor John Berman kicked off the conversation by asking about the growing pandemic.
“We see the stock market falling, the worst week since the financial crisis, which I know you lived through as a senator and then vice president,” Berman said, asking “How serious do you think the economic impact will be from the coronavirus?”
“I’m less concerned about the immediate economic impact than I am about whether or not we gain control of this,” Biden said. “The idea that the experts are not allowed to speak, the president has silenced him, Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, who was in three administrations, worked in our administrations, we took care of Ebola, the idea that the whistleblower came out today saying that the people we sent to the air base to receive incoming folks were not trained, they didn’t have the right suits on, I mean this is time.”
“Let the experts take this over. Everyone will have more confidence,” Biden said, and added “I think one of the reasons it’s falling is not just the pandemic, concern quote unquote, but the way in which the president is handling this.”
“You were vice president. In a vacuum, is a vice president the right person to put in charge of a response like this?” Berman asked.
“Depends on how qualified the vice president is,” Biden said, and added “I can understand a vice president coordinating it, I’ve coordinated and everything is, but you need to let the experts speak. I heard on the news this morning Dr. Fauci is not allowed to speak publicly. What is this all about?”
Dr. Anthony Fauci has reportedly been ordered not to “say anything” without clearance from the Trump administration.
“No one takes the president’s word for these things, he at a minimum exaggerates everything, and the idea that he’s going to stand there and say everything is fine, don’t worry? Who is going to believe that?” Biden continued. “Let the experts speak like we did in our administration.”
Biden then criticized Trump for weakening preparedness ahead of the outbreak, and said “this is not a way to run a nation. This is not a way to reassure the world.”
“You say part of the reaction in the market you think might be as a reaction to what’s happening in the White House, but I do want to go back to my first question here, which is how do you think the United States economy will hold up as this virus becomes more of an issue here?” Berman asked.
“It will depend on how well the administration handles the concern, and the reality of the virus,” Biden said, adding that, “The concern is do they have any idea what they’re doing? Is this all being run as a political gambit and how this is going to affect my election?”
Biden said, “It’s not about the president, it’s about the people. it’s about the country. This can be handled, there’s no reason to panic if you’d let the experts go. Look, the idea that we don’t have serious experts in China, in the parts of China where this virus has spread, is just not correct. It’s not the way to do business.”
“If I were president I’d be insisting China let us come in with our experts. We can help them and we can help ourselves. We can help the world,” Biden said, concluding, “So I just think this whole idea about us gaming the political impact of this, it’s about people’s lives. It’s about the reality. But this could get very much worse, but it could also be handled with the right people.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
