WATCH: All the Times Joe Biden Was Right and Trump Was Wrong on Coronavirus and China

President Donald Trump has taken to attacking Joe Biden and the World Health Organization over the coronavirus and China, but a thorough review of Trump’s very recent record of public comments is very damning for him — especially when compared with Biden’s.

In the space of a week, Trump has attacked Biden and WHO over China and the coronavirus, accusing Biden of “protecting China’s feelings” and falsely claiming he opposed Trump’s travel ban, and accusing WHO of believing China’s information on the outbreak.

The Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent has done two excellent pieces demonstrating just how monumental a projection these attacks are, but seeing all of it together in one place is stunning. Not only was Trump a consistent and credulous dupe for China’s coronavirus spin, but it was Biden who warned not to trust the information coming from their government.

Before  I get to that, though, there’s one juxtaposition that really jumped out at me for a couple of reasons. From the very beginning, Biden has said that America should have insisted on having our own experts on the ground in China, as he did at a February CNN town hall.

“I would not be taking China’s word for it. I would insist that China allow our scientists in to make a hard determination of how it started, where it’s from, how far along it is,” Biden said.

This was a consistent refrain from Biden, but what I didn’t realize was that Trump actually did claim to have asked China to allow U.S. experts in, and gave some of the weakest excuses imaginable for why it didn’t happen — while confessing that the president of China simply blew him off. Twice!

I did ask him whether or not we could send some people, and they didn’t want that — out of pride. I think, really, out of pride. They don’t want — they don’t want us sending people into China, to help them. You know, China is a strong country. They have — they have their scientists and they have their doctors — very smart. A lot of people. And, you know, but I did discuss that about sending our people in. And, they didn’t really respond. We went again; they didn’t respond.

That wasn’t back in January, or during the “lost month” of February, or even early March. That was March 22, and Trump was still praising China’s ability to handle the pandemic.

And as the Post’s Aaron Blake notes, Trump accused Biden of opposing his China travel ban in that campaign ad by combining a pair of deceptively edited quotes. First, the ad shows Biden saying “Banning all travel will not stop it,” when what he actually said was “Banning all travel from Europe, or any other part of the world, may slow it, but as we have seen, it will not stop it.”

He went on to slam Trump for travel bans “based on favoritism” because the bans exempted places where Trump has golf resorts.

The other is a clip from a Jan. 31 rally in which Biden tells an Iowa crowd “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia – hysterical xenophobia – and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.”

But this wasn’t in reference to the travel ban. Biden made the same criticisms of Trump in an op-ed several days before the travel ban, related to Trump “stoking fear” during the Ebola outbreak in 2014. That criticism was borne out by Trump himself when he was forced to make a statement defending Asian-Americans from the racism that he’d fomented by relentlessly and pointedly calling Covid-19 “the Chinese Virus.”

And despite Trump’s repeated claims, there’s little evidence the ban saved “hundreds of thousands” of lives — especially given Trump’s inaction after the ban.

In a January 22 interview, Trump was asked “are there worries about a pandemic at this point?”, and Trump replied “No. Not at all. And we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

But by that time, Trump had been repeatedly warned about the coronavirus.

When Trump was asked “Do you trust that we’re going to know everything we need to know from China?”, he said “I do. I do. I have a great relationship with President Xi.”

He also praised China’s transparency in a tweet on Jan. 24, writing “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”

Here’s video of Trump having that tweet read back to him by CNN’s Jeremy Diamond at a White House briefing on March 21, and explaining it by saying “That’s true.”

On Feb. 7, Trump tweeted “Just had a long and very good conversation by phone with President Xi of China. He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus. He feels they are doing very well, even building hospitals in a matter of only days. Nothing is easy, but […] he will be successful, especially as the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone. Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation. We are working closely with China to help!”

Here’s a Fox Business anchor reading that tweet, while noting that the coronavirus was “beginning” to affect the stock market.

On Feb. 10, Trump mentioned his call with Xi, said China was doing a “good job” on the virus, and added “And he feels that, again, as I mentioned, by April or during the month of April, the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus.”

On Feb. 25, Trump said China was “working very, very hard” on the virus and getting it more and more under control,” then said “I think it’s a problem that’s going to go away.”

On Feb. 26, Trump again praised China’s efforts on the coronavirus, and also said that “reports out of China” were “somewhat reliable.”

On Feb. 29 Trump again hailed the “progress” in China, and cited that most crucial of pandemic bellwethers, the reopening of Starbucks.

Meanwhile, on Feb. 28, Biden was telling a debate audience that he would “insist, insist, insist” on having American experts in China — presumably even if Xi tried to ghost him two whole times.

On March 13, Trump praised China again, and said “I think that they want to get to the bottom of things also.”

He also boasted “We are sharing data, yes. In fact, we’re sharing quite a bit of data” with China.

Trump and his supporters are immune to facts, but for everyone else, let this ridiculous volume of evidence stand as Trump’s own testimony the next time he tries to rewrite history, and paint anyone other than himself as a dupe for the authoritarian deceptions of China’s government.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.