Democratic vice presidential pick Sen. Kamala Harris said that President Donald Trump failed to take the virus “seriously from the start.”
Calling Trump "delusional," she blamed the president for the gravity of the coronavirus outbreak in the US.
“This virus has impacted almost every country, but there’s a reason it has hit America worse than any other advanced nation. It’s because of Trump’s failure to take it seriously from the start,” Harris said. She gave a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, during her first joint appearance with former Vice President Joe Biden since she was announced as his running mate.
“His refusal to get testing up and running, his flip-flopping on social distancing and wearing masks, his delusional belief that he knows better than the experts — all of that is the reason and the reason an American dies of Covid-19 every 80 seconds,” she said.
The White House did not give any comment on Harris' speech.
To respond to Harris, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh pointed out that the president “has been leading the nation through the coronavirus crisis and restricted travel from China, and then Europe, way back in January.”
“Joe Biden called it xenophobic and fear-mongering,” Murtaugh said. “We now know that the President’s decision saved countless thousands of American lives and that Joe Biden would not have done it. If Joe Biden had been president, we would be in a much worse situation today.”
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the US has reported the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world with over 5 million cases and 165,328 deaths as of Wednesday.
Trump has frequently blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the Chinese government did not disclose the extent of its outbreak earlier.
However, health authorities say the failures in the Trump administration have led to the surge of cases in the US. They stressed that the government failed to act fast to curb the spread of the virus, has no coordinated response between the federal government and states, and made mistakes on testing.
“When other countries are following the science, Trump pushed miracle cures he saw on Fox News,” Harris said. “While other countries were flattening the curve, he said the virus would just, poof, go away, quote ‘like a miracle.’ So when other countries opened back up for business, what did we do? We had to shut down again.”
During the same campaign, Biden promised that his administration “will have a comprehensive plan to meet the challenge of Covid-19 and turn the corner on this pandemic.”
“Masking, clear science-based guidance, dramatically scaling up testing, getting states and local governments the resources they need to open the schools and businesses safely,” he said.
He called on Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to “take responsibility” for the Covid-19 outbreak.
“With more than 5 million reported infections and 165,000 people dead and climbing as a consequence of Covid-19 and still months later no real leadership or plan from the president of the United States how to get this pandemic under control. No real help for the states and local governments trying to fill the vacuum of leadership from the White House,” he said.
