Candidates scrap over virus stance
MIAMI/PHILADELPHIA: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden yesterday criticised what he called President Donald Trump’s ‘‘panicked’’ response to the coronavirus pandemic, while Trump defended his handling of a crisis that has killed more than 217,000 Americans.
The rivals spoke in simultaneous town halls broadcast on separate television networks after a debate originally scheduled for yesterday was called off following Trump’s Covid19 diagnosis.
The splitscreen showdown offered a stark reminder of the many ways the campaign season has been changed by a pandemic that has prompted more than 18 million people to cast ballots more than two weeks before election day on November 3.
Biden, speaking to voters in Philadelphia on ABC, blamed the Republican president for concealing the deadliness of the virus.
‘‘He said he didn’t tell anybody because he was afraid Americans would panic,’’ Biden said.
‘‘Americans don’t panic. He panicked.’’
Trump defended both his response to the pandemic as well as his own personal conduct, including staging a Rose Garden event at the White House where few wore masks or practised social distancing, which resulted in numerous attendees contracting the disease.
‘‘Hey, I’m president — I have to see people. I can’t be in a basement,’’ Trump said on NBC in front of an outdoor audience of voters in Miami, implicitly criticising Biden for spending months off the campaign trail as the pandemic raged.
He did not answer questions about the last time he tested negative before contracting the virus, saying he did not recall precisely.
The president declined to denounce QAnon, the false conspiracy theory that Democrats are part of a global paedophile ring, first praising its adherents for opposing paedophilia before saying he knew nothing about the movement.
Kamala Harris will suspend inperson events until Monday (local time) after two people associated with her vicepresidential campaign tested positive for Covid19.
The campaign said Biden had no exposure, although he and Harris spent several hours campaigning together in Arizona on October 8.
JOE BIDEN
Vote for me, because . . .
DONALD TRUMP
I’m doing fine, a touch of Covid never killed anyone, we have the best doctors in the world in America, the best medical care, beautiful nurses, I have a lot of respect for beautiful women, there’s that one I’m married to, I can’t remember her name but I know she’s from one of those countries that don’t speak English — Poland or Budapest — and by the way Dr Fauci said President Trump saved thousands of lives, nothing short of a miracle, I walk with God, when you talk about numbers you know how many people died in Japan, how many people died in India, and how many people died in New Zealand.
New Zealand, it’s all over in New Zealand.
JOE BIDEN
. . . the one thing I have to offer . . .
DONALD TRUMP
There has never been an administration or president who has done more than I’ve done in a period of three and ahalf years, and that’s despite the impeachment hoax, and fake news, and Chinese flu, by the way it was terrible what happened with George Floyd, the riots were terrible, the streets weren’t safe but I made them safe, you can walk down any street in America after dark if you’re armed, I would never, ever take away our guns, if there’s one thing that stands between Americans and death it’s guns, an armed guard is beautiful, rule of law is beautiful, without it you’re living in chaos, you’re living in China, you’re living in Iran, you’re living in New Zealand.
New Zealand, forget about New Zealand.
JOE BIDEN
...isthatIamnot...
DONALD TRUMP
Before Covid came in, we had the greatest economy in history, we had the lowest unemployment numbers, we had unity, unity like you’d never seen before, it was truly the United States of America as opposed to the bloody and divisive Civil War we had under Obama, and by the way Obama knew Jeffrey Epstein, I’m just saying, fake news media kept his name out of it but Obama knew
Epstein and the sick things that went on between those two and crooked Hillary are well documented, you cannot fool the American people, they are going to vote for me in record numbers, and so are the Russian people, together we’re making America great again, the envy of countries like Canada, like Germany, like New Zealand.
New Zealand’s a hellhole, things are not good in New Zealand.
JOE BIDEN
. . . Donald Trump.