Politics

Former Vice President Joe Biden Blames Donald Trump’s ‘Slow’ Virus Response For 3 Million Lost Jobs

Joe Biden speaks during the Democratic debate hosted by ABC on Sept. 12, 2019. (YouTube/Screenshot)

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that President Donald Trump “bears full responsibility” for what the Democratic presidential candidate considers a slow response to coronavirus.

Trump’s “slow and uncoordinated” response to the coronavirus outbreak is chiefly to blame for a record unemployment surge, the former vice president said in a statement. Biden is working out of the basement of his Delaware home and forgoing campaign rallies to isolate himself.

“The harsh reality is that at least 3 million people now don’t have jobs because our president didn’t do his job when it mattered,” the Democratic presidential front runner said.

Nearly 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment last week.

“He didn’t get ahead of it when he had the chance. And in the absence of an early, aggressive response to flatten the curve, cities and states have been left with no option other than extreme social distancing measures, causing businesses to close and lay off workers,” Biden said.

Biden’s comments come almost three months after Trump announced in January that he would restrict foreign nationals recently in China from entering the U.S. His administration also noted at the time that some Americans who traveled to China would be placed into quarantine.

The Trump administration also rolled back a Food And Drug Administration Obama-era rule on Feb. 29 that stalled coronavirus testing at the state level. The rule previously required state-run laboratories to run medical tests pre-approved by the FDA.