Biden Tears Into Trump’s Pandemic Response

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Joe Biden strongly condemned the Trump administration’s failed response to the coronavirus pandemic early in Tuesday’s presidential debate, using Trump’s infamous offhand remark about the disease’s death toll—”It is what it is”—against him.

“It is what it is because you are who you are,” Biden said, landing an early blow in a debate that was muddled from the start as Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden and moderator Chris Wallace. At one point, an exasperated Biden even asked, “Will you shut up, man?”

"It is what it is because you are who you are." –@JoeBiden pic.twitter.com/etRYkJWiaU

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) September 30, 2020

“The president has no plan,” Biden said. “He hasn’t laid out anything. He knew all the way back in February how serious this crisis was.”

Trump, who predicted in February that coronavirus cases would soon go down to zero, has repeatedly deflected blame for the pandemic that has now killed more than 200,000 Americans. “If we would have listened to you,” Trump told Biden, “the country would have been left wide open. Millions of people would have died, not 200,000.”

In a jab at Trump’s frequent weekend golf trips, Biden urged him to “get out of your bunker and get out of the sand trap in your golf course” and to “fund what needs to be done now to save lives.”