US Elections: Joe Biden Gets Angry During CNN City Hall Voter Interrogation

Earlier this week, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, faced an unusual barbecue of ordinary Americans in a televised city hall.

Today it was Joe Biden’s turn.

The former vice president appeared in his own city hall on CNN, having largely avoided such events since the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination concluded months ago.

The coronavirus pandemic dominated the discussion, just as it did during Trump’s appearance on Tuesday.

Moderator Anderson Cooper mentioned the president’s explanation of why he “downplayed” the threat of the virus in its early months. Trump told journalist Bob Woodward that he did not want to “create a panic.”

“Could you see a scenario where I minimize critical information so as not to cause panic?” Cooper asked Biden.

“Not at all. The idea that you are not going to tell people what they have told you, that this virus is incredibly contagious, seven times more contagious than the flu,” he replied.

“If he had acted a month, a week, earlier, he would have saved 37,000 lives.

“He knew it. He knew it and did nothing. It is almost criminal.”

Biden was referring to an estimate published by Columbia University, which concluded that 36,000 fewer people would have died by May 3 if the United States had imposed social distancing measures a week earlier than it did.

Doing so fifteen days earlier would have saved 54,000 lives.

Trump waited until March 16 to unveil federal social distancing guidelines. But he was not the only politician who was so late.

New York was the first epicenter of coronavirus infections and deaths in the US State Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, didn’t order a total shutdown until March 20, when there were already 7,000 cases there.

Anyway, let’s go back to Biden’s answer.

“What presidents say matters. People listen,” he argued.

“I’ll make it clear what needs to be done. I can’t force masks, but we were just told that we should expect another 215,000 deaths by January. But if we did wear a mask, we would save 100,000 of those lives by doing nothing more than that.

“We need to make sure we tell the American people the truth. Tell them the truth.

“Look, this is all about one thing, the stock market. You don’t want anything to happen. It’s about your re-election. It should be about the American people.”

Trump has been accusing Biden of spreading “anti-vaccine conspiracy theories” in recent days.

The president promises that a vaccine will be available to the general public before the end of the year. In response, Biden suggested that Trump could pressure health officials to approve a vaccine prematurely, before it is shown to be safe.

He further explained his position on the matter when one of the voters asked if he would make it mandatory for children to be vaccinated against the coronavirus before they can attend school.

“I don’t trust the president about vaccines. I trust Dr. [Anthony] Fauci. If Fauci says a vaccine is safe, I would take the vaccine, “Biden said.

“We should listen to the scientists, not the president.

“The idea that there is going to be a vaccine, and that everything is going to be fine tomorrow, is just not rational. It just isn’t reasonable.”

He never answered the question directly.

Cooper asked him to address comments made yesterday by US Attorney General William Barr, who said that calls for a nationwide lockdown in response to the virus were the “greatest interference with civil liberties” in US history. United “apart from slavery.”

“Frankly, they’re sick. Think about it,” Biden said.

“Did any of you ever think that you would hear an attorney general say that following the recommendations of the scientific community to save your life and that of other people is equivalent to slavery? Are people in chains?”

To be clear here, Barr did not say that the lockdown rules were “equivalent” to slavery. He said that slavery was the single worst interference with civil liberties in American history.

“You lost your freedom because he didn’t act,” Biden continued, speaking loudly and clearly enthusiastic.

“The freedom to go to that ball game. The freedom for your child to go to school. The freedom to see your mom or dad in the hospital. The freedom to walk around your neighborhood. For not acting responsibly.

“I have been doing this for a long time. I never ever thought that I would see such a complete and totally irresponsible administration.”

There was another flash of anger a couple of minutes later when Biden opened up about his late son Beau, who died in 2015.

Beau was a military veteran who served in Iraq. Biden mentioned a recent article in The Atlantic, which cited anonymous sources saying that Trump had called the dead soldiers “losers” and “fools.”

The president flatly denies that accusation. Several current and former members of his administration have publicly stated that they have never heard him say anything of the sort.

On the other hand, journalists from The Associated Press, CNN and Fox News say they have confirmed elements of The Atlantic story.

“I don’t want to get too personal,” Biden said.

“My son died of cancer. He came home from Iraq and I have to say it really offended me a lot, when he volunteered to go there for a year and came home with a stage four glioblastoma, and the president referred to boys like my son, [who] won the Bronze Star, referred to them as “losers”.

“Losers! Talk about losers!” he exploded.

You can see the moment in question in the video below.

It came amid a meandering response to a voter who had asked Biden if he had a plan to make health care more affordable.

“My point is this. The idea that healthcare is debated whether or not it’s a right or a privilege. It’s an absolute right,” Biden said when he finished speaking on Beau.

Another voter, Joseph Farley, struggled to hold back tears when he told the Democratic candidate about his financial and mental struggles amid the pandemic. Farley works at a cancer center.

“I make less than $ 15 an hour. During these Covid times, unfortunately, I had to open a credit card with 25 percent interest just to cover my purchases,” he said.

“I’m just making ends meet. [I’ve] he received no payment for dangerous living conditions or a raise. I am struggling, not only mentally but also financially.

“I admire you, and as a middle-class healthcare worker, do you have any plans to defend healthcare workers?”

“Absolutely. And the idea that you’re not making at least $ 15 an hour is just wrong. Wrong. No one should have to work two jobs to get out of poverty,” Biden told him.

“You are breaking your neck and what you are doing is saving people’s lives. You are helping them. And you are risking yours in this Covid moment.”

“So first of all, thank you.”

He then turned on an argument that the election campaign was a choice “between Scranton and Park Avenue.”

Scranton, an industrial city in Pennsylvania, is where CNN held town hall. Biden was born there. Park Avenue is a boulevard in New York City, where Trump lived most of his life before becoming president.

“The way we were raised here, in this area, a lot of hardworking people break their necks. All they ask for is an opportunity,” Biden said.

“All Trump can see from Park Avenue is Wall Street. All he thinks about is the stock market. [you], ‘Let’s do it right, everyone owns stocks.’

“In my neighborhood in Scranton, there are not many people who own stocks. So we need to make sure that healthcare workers get decent pay and wages, and $ 15 an hour is not enough for a healthcare worker. ..

“Guys like me, the first in my family to go to college, we’re just as good as everyone else, and guys like Trump, who inherited everything and squandered what they inherited, are the people I’ve always had problems with.”

Overall, the questioning Biden faced was significantly less hostile than the questioning Trump received during his own town hall this week. That crowd, selected by ABC News, contained only undecided voters, while CNN included several Democrats.

The president held another political rally today, this time in Mosinee, Wisconsin.

He said Biden supporters were no more excited about voting for the former vice president than they would be about voting for a “piece of wood.”

“It’s the largest enthusiasm gap ever surveyed. I don’t believe in polls, but I believe in that,” Trump told supporters.

“It’s the biggest enthusiasm gap. He has no enthusiasm. The only enthusiasm is for people who want to beat us, they want to beat me. That’s all he has.

“They don’t care in the least. He could be that piece of wood left on the ground.”