Joe Biden blasts Donald Trump for spreading ‘misinformation’ in his coronavirus response

Former Vice President Joe Biden leveled pointed criticisms at President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, accusing him of spreading ‘misinformation’ in a way that is harming the national response.

‘When I’m president, we will be better prepared, respond better, and recover better,’ Biden vowed, reading from a teleprompter as he addressed the crisis and released a plan. 

Biden spoke before a bank of American flags in his home town of Wilmington, hitting Trump for being insufficiently prepared, but also putting out some of his own ideas he said would be driven by scientists.  

His advisors said the event was meant to show how he would respond to a crisis as president. ‘My fellow Americans,’ he began, speaking hours after Trump made his own address to the nation. 

‘Downplaying it being overly dismissive or spreading misinformation is only going to hurt us and further advantage the spread of the disease. But neither should we panic or fall back on xenophobia,’ Biden warned.   

‘Travel restrictions based on favoritism and politics, rather than risk, will be counter-productive,’ he said. 

‘Our ability to drive a global response is dramatically cut,’ Biden said, by the ‘damage Trump has done to our credibility.’

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic at an event in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., March 12, 2020.He read from a teleprompter and appeared before a ban of American flags

Biden spoke hours after President Trump addressed the nation and announced 30-day travel ban for Europeans seeking to enter the U.S.

He criticized Trump for eliminating a pandemic response office within the national security council at the White House. 

‘It was designed for exactly this scenario. And for some reason I don’t understand, President Trump eliminated that office two years ago’ Biden said.

As he has throughout his campaign, Biden said he would rely on government scientists to make decisions on such matters.  His Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, was to give his own address on the topic from Burlington.

Both candidates have nixed large public events in a sign of how American life is changing due to the virus.  

 Biden had scheduled the speech before Trump announced he would speak form teh Oval Office Wednesday night. Trump once again defended his actions Thursday from the Oval Office.

‘We’ve taken some bold steps. We took the original boldest step of all when we closed very early with China,’ Trump said as he sat with Toiseach Leo Varadkar of Ireland – absent the traditional handshake due to rising health concerns about spread of the virus.

Joe Biden’s campaign announced its own coronavirus taskforce Wednesday, which would give advice on how to ‘minimize health risks for the candidate, staff and supporters.’ He’ll also hold two ‘virtual’ events next week so to not attract crowds 

‘That helped us save thousands of lives. And we went very early with Europe. And I think that’ll likewise be very good,’ Trump told reporters.

The Biden campaign announced Wednesday that it had assembled its own team of medical professionals to advise the former vice president on coronavirus in order to ‘minimize health risks for the candidate, staff and supporters.’   

Additionally, the Biden campaign announced that instead of holding two ‘large crowd’ events in Chicago and Miami in the run-up to Tuesday’s set of primaries the ex-veep would now participate in ‘virtual’ events in those cities. 

Among the members of Biden’s ‘Public Health Advisory Committee’ is Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who had been a top healthcare adviser to President Obama and was a central character in the Obama-Biden administration’s Obamacare push.