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- Joe Biden criticized President Donald Trump for ignoring the risks of the coronavirus in his response to the pandemic.
- Biden spoke at a town hall-style event at his birthplace of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where strict health protocols were observed.
- At a recent town hall, Trump defended his administration’s response to the outbreak, despite acknowledging that he had downplayed the threat.
US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden attacked President Donald Trump on Thursday for ignoring coronavirus risks, blaming him for thousands of unnecessary American deaths and vowing to mount a coordinated national response if elected.
“He knew it, he knew it and he did nothing,” Biden told a CNN town hall. “He’s close to criminal.”
The broadcast was the first town hall-style event that Biden has held since accepting the Democratic nomination for president last month, giving viewers a unique opportunity to see him answer questions from people whose votes he hopes to win in November.
The cable network described the event, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden’s birthplace, as a “town hall”: Participants remained parked in their cars outside a minor league ballpark to make sure they stayed at a safe distance from each other.
For much of the summer, Biden held primarily virtual events from his home in Delaware, prompting criticism from Trump that he was “hiding.” But Biden held an edge over Trump in national opinion polls throughout, as the pandemic and the subsequent economic downturn hit Trump’s position among voters.
In recent weeks, Biden has started to travel to changing states again for campaign appearances, but they have largely been devoid of assistants, plus reporters and guests in a nod to the ongoing pandemic.
Trump, who has once again staged large indoor and outdoor rallies, participated in an ABC town hall with swing voters from Pennsylvania earlier this week, where he defended his administration’s response to the outbreak, despite acknowledging journalist Bob. Woodward in March that he had deliberately downplayed the lethality of the virus.
Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed more than 195,000 and infected more than 6.3 million people in the United States, the majority of any country.
Biden and Trump will travel to Minnesota on Friday, the first day of early voting there.
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