Biden calls Trump’s Arizona visit ‘reckless and irresponsible’

Former Vice President Joe Biden called President Donald Trump’s plans to speak Tuesday to thousands of supporters in Phoenix “reckless and irresponsible” at a time when the number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus in Arizona is continuing to rise.

Trump will make two stops in Arizona, including a swing through Yuma to see the construction of a border wall that has been a centerpiece of his campaign pitch.

Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate who is now challenging

Trump in this year’s election, argued the visit to the state is a distraction amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Instead of doing the hard work needed to solve the public health and economic crises facing America, Donald Trump remains focused on his expensive, ineffective and wasteful ‘wall’ on our Southern Border,” Biden said in a written statement to The Arizona Republic. Biden seized on Trump’s visit to attack the administration’s handling of a pandemic that remains a real danger in the state well over a month after Arizona ended its stay at home order.

Biden noted in his statement that more than 1,300 Arizonans have died, and more than 50,000 have tested positive for the coronavirus.

“Make no mistake: this visit is a distraction,” Biden said. “It’s a distraction from Donald Trump’s failed response to combat the spread of COVID-19. It’s a distraction from his failure to get Americans — including many in Arizona — the testing we need. It’s a distraction from his inability to offer a concrete, effective reopening plan that’s rooted in science and public health. It’s a distraction from his corrupt recovery that failed to get small businesses and working families the resources they needed to weather this pandemic.”

Trump’s visit Tuesday marks his third to the state in five months and comes as he seeks to hold on to this swing state that could be decisive in his re-election bid.

The stops in his trip fit with some broader themes of Trump's campaign— the border and a megachurch in north Phoenix. Trump is traveling to the state, rallying supporters and capturing attention here at the same time Biden has scaled back big in-person campaign events in favor of smaller gatherings or digital events.

Biden spent Monday afternoon, for example, on a round of fundraisers convened via the teleconferencing service Zoom.