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Biden once again hit the Trump administration over the virus, which has set records for new cases in recent days, with nearly 90,000 on Saturday and more than 63,000 on Sunday.
Former Vice President of the United States of America, Joe Biden. Image: World Economic Forum.
WASHINTON – US presidential hopeful Joe Biden on Sunday accused Donald Trump of giving up the fight against COVID-19 as the president faced a new outbreak on his team, a surge in infections across the country and an uneasy admission of your chief of staff.
Nine days before the vote, and with reported deaths from coronavirus in the US surpassing the dismal total of 225,000, Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, admitted on Sunday that “we are not going to control the pandemic,” which he said could only be done through “vaccines”. , therapeutic and other mitigation areas “.
The control was not practical, he said, because “it is a contagious virus like the flu.”
Biden immediately took advantage of the Meadows comment when he again criticized the administration for the virus, which has set records for new cases in recent days, with nearly 90,000 on Saturday and more than 63,000 on Sunday.
“It was a heartfelt recognition of what President Trump’s strategy has clearly been since the beginning of this crisis: wave the white flag of defeat and hope that by ignoring it, the virus will simply disappear,” the former vice president said in a statement. statement.
“It hasn’t and it won’t.”
He spoke as millions of Americans, wary of crowded polls on Election Day as coronavirus cases rise, and buoyed by a race that both candidates have called existential, continued to vote early, either by mail or in person. .
With nine days to go, early voting has surpassed all pre-election ballots from four years earlier, an independent voting monitor said Sunday.
The count by the US Independent Election Project, led by the University of Florida, said that as of Sunday more than 59 million people had voted so far. In total, 137 million votes were cast in 2016.
Down in the polls and with time running out, Trump on Sunday continued a frantic campaign pace, with stops in New Hampshire and Maine.
His repeated efforts to downplay the severity of the pandemic or divert voters’ attention elsewhere have been met with a constant trickle of bad news about the virus.
The latest example was Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, and several of his aides reportedly tested positive for Covid, increasing the list of management personnel who contracted the virus.
‘Biggest failure’
Campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Sunday that Pence would continue, with the approval of doctors, to tour the country in the final days of the campaign. Both Pence and his wife tested negative, he said.
“The people on his staff are under quarantine and he relies on the very strong medical advice from the White House medical unit,” Murtaugh told Fox News.
The decision by Pence, who heads the White House coronavirus task force, to ignore standing advice from health experts to self-quarantine, drew criticism from Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris, who also criticized to Meadows for comparing the coronavirus to the flu.
“This is the biggest failure of any presidential administration in the history of the United States,” he said.
On Sunday, Trump once again sought to put aside the avalanche of bad news from COVID, telling his supporters in New Hampshire: “We are turning around, we are rounding up the turn, we have the vaccines, we have everything, we are taking a turn. Even without the shots, we are rounding out the turn. “
Vaccines for the virus have not yet been approved and health experts are warning of thousands more deaths in the coming months.
Trump and his aides have repeatedly attacked Biden’s energy levels and what they say is his poor record of accomplishment.
Biden ahead in the polls
Murtaugh criticized Biden for his light campaign schedule, saying the 77-year-old Democratic challenger was “feeling the heat” and “took five of the six days off” before the last presidential debate on Thursday.
The comments stood in stark contrast to the hectic pace the 74-year-old Trump has maintained, while Biden has set a more cautious course, speaking less frequently and with smaller, socially estranged groups.
“The difference between what we’re doing and what Donald Trump is doing,” said Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield, is that “we’re doing it safely.”
Biden has held a stable lead of around 10 points in national polls and a narrower lead in battle states.
But both Republicans and Democrats are wary of the polls after Trump’s astonishing surprise in 2016 when he defeated Hillary Clinton.
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