Biden hosts Democratic governors in virtual coronavirus roundtable

Gov. Ned Lamont wants the states to control the supply chain for personal protective equipment in the event of a coronavirus resurgence.

His trust in the federal government is broken, he told Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, during a virtual roundtable with fellow Democratic governors Phil Murphy of New Jersey and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan Thursday afternoon.

“I want to control the supply chain myself,” Lamont said. “I don’t want to be sitting around waiting for the national stockpile to decide they can send it to me or waiting for that plane from China to land any longer. Working with our regional governors here, we want to get as much of the stockpile as we control ourselves ... I want to make sure next time around we control our own destiny.”

Biden gathered the governors to ask them about their experiences responding to the coronavirus pandemic, as governors across the country on both sides of the aisle have been widely praised for leading the response to the crisis.

During the 45-minute conversation, Biden focused on the economic disparity that’s always existed in the United States but has been highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic, and his tone was generally optimistic that some good will come from the crisis.

“My problem is I’m a congenital optimist,” Biden said. “I think what’s happening is all of this is sort of being stripped bare and people are beginning to see how things work and don’t work. I think it’s a false choice to say we either deal with employment or deal with the virus. You can’t separate them. Unless you get the virus under control, unemployment and the economy is going to remain in real trouble ... as we get from stimulus into recovery, we have an opportunity to provide for some real changes.”

Lamont noted that many of the front line workers, such as grocery store and food service workers, make minimum wage, and prior to the coronavirus pandemic, many were taken for granted.

“We raised the minimum wage here about a year and a half ago and people were talking about minimum wage or low wage earners,” Lamont said. “Our first responders, they can’t ‘stay safe, stay at home’ we’ve been asking them every day to go in and keep us safe. Post-COVID, we now call them essential workers instead of minimum wage workers. If we learn anything from this miserable COVID virus, i hope we learn a new respect for a lot of the folks that are doing the work in this country.”

Very little of the discussion was new information, as Biden sought to better understand the issues the governors are dealing with in their states. Biden focused solely on the coronavirus response, and no one asked a question of Biden. Press were able to watch the event but not able to ask questions of the former vice president.

Murphy officially endorsed Biden for president during the roundtable, a move he’s held off on since initially endorsing New Jersey Senator Cory Booker in 2019. Booker dropped out of the race in January. Lamont, of course, was one of the first high profile Democrats to endorse Biden almost a year ago, and Whitmer endorsed Biden in March, days ahead of the Michigan primary.

As a result, the roundtable was an easy landing for Biden, as, in recent weeks, accusations of sexual assault against Biden have resurfaced, though he has denied the claims.

Biden was expected to visit Connecticut in March for fundraiser hosted by Lamont, but was forced to cancel as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered large gatherings at that time.

“We look forward to having you in Connecticut again soon,” Lamont told Biden at the end of the roundtable discussion.

kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt