Biden aggressive as campaigning heats back up

Dem hopeful seeks to build momentum as Trump mired in issues

PHILADELPHIA — Joe Biden is adopting an increasingly aggressive stance as he looks to break out of a monthslong campaign freeze imposed by the coronavirus outbreak.

Over the course of 24 hours, the presumptive Democratic nominee sharpened his rhetoric against President Donald Trump, warning he could try to steal the election. His campaign organized a petition pressing Facebook to boost its efforts to prevent the spread of misinformation. And he released a plan to restart an economy slammed by the coronavirus in a way that he says won’t make Americans choose between their health and livelihoods.

The quick succession of developments signals Biden’s growing desire to become more assertive. He’s betting that he can build momentum by offering a contrast to Trump’s leadership as the country is gripped by the pandemic, economic turmoil and unrest stemming from racial injustice and police brutality.

“Trump has basically had a one-point plan: Open businesses,” Biden said Thursday at an economic roundtable in Philadelphia, where he announced a plan to reopen the economy. “It does nothing to keep workers safe, to keep businesses able to stay open, and secondly it does very little to increase consumer confidence.”

If elected, Biden promised to guarantee testing and protective equipment for people called back to work, while prohibiting discrimination against the elderly and others at high risk of contracting the virus. He also wants to ensure paid leave for anyone who falls ill or cares for those who do.

He proposed a national contact tracing workforce or “job corps” of at least 100,000 to call people who test positive, track down their contacts and get them into quarantine. That figure aligns with an estimate from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Health experts agree that contact tracing is crucial to slowing the spread of the virus and that there aren’t enough public health workers to achieve what’s needed.

Biden also pledged a “Nationwide Pandemic Dashboard,” where Americans could check the virus’s spreading by ZIP code. Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy with the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington, said it remains unclear “if that information would be timely and accurate enough to reflect true levels of risk in a way that would be helpful to individuals, businesses and institutions in each community.”

Still, “It might be helpful to have such information to better target resources and identify the most at risk communities on a more fine grain level,” Michaud said. “As we have seen done in a few places like different New York City boroughs.”

Biden backed more funding for schools and child care centers and the creation of a “safe shopper” program meant to make returning consumers less wary of getting sick. He referenced the eye-popping price tag of all that, joking, “There goes that big spending Democrat again” but added, “If we don’t do this, we’re going to be in deep, deep, deeper trouble economically.”

As the plan was being released, his campaign circulated an online petition urging Facebook to strengthen its misinformation rules. Social media giant Twitter has already drawn Trump’s ire by imposing stricter limits on how he and others use the social media network.

“We’re sending Facebook a letter demanding that the company change its policies to crack down on misinformation in ads and ensure a fair election,” the petition reads. Facebook responded that “the people’s elected representatives should set the rules, and we will follow them.

“There is an election coming in November and we will protect political speech,” the company said in a statement “even when we strongly disagree with it.”