The Biden campaign is once again using Donald Trump’s own words against him to devastating effect, this time letting viewers make a direct comparison to the kind of leadership former Vice President Joe Biden would offer during the coronavirus crisis.
It’s a tough competition, of course, but the video centers on one of Trump’s worst recent coronavirus press briefing moments, when he accused hospitals of hoarding supplies—said, in fact, “I think it’s maybe worse than hoarding”—and suggested that hospital workers—doctors and nurses and clinical assistants and others working on the front lines of the fight—might be stealing the very protective supplies they are publicly begging for more of.
On the one hand you have Trump unable to believe that, with hospitals overwhelmed in a pandemic, doctors and nurses might need more protective gear. On the other hand, you have Biden saying he would use the Defense Production Act to provide masks and gowns and other personal protective equipment.
On the one hand, you have Trump saying, ”Somebody should probably look into that,” although apparently not the president or anyone who works for him. Instead, “You oughta look into that as reporters.” On the other hand, you have Biden pointing to nurses wearing garbage bags as protection, saying that’s something that urgently needs to change.
Just a devastating comparison.
Transcript:
PBS Newshour reporter Yamiche Alcindor: “You’ve said repeatedly that you think that some of the equipment that governors are requesting they don’t actually need.”
Trump: “When I hear face masks go from 10,000 to 300,000 and they constantly need more …”
Chuck Todd: “Is there an action he has not taken that you would be taking right now if you were president?”
Biden: “One, I would make sure that he uses the Defense Production Act for masks and gowns, all the things that our first responders and our doctors and nurses need.”
Trump: “Somebody should probably look into that. Cause I just don’t see from a practical standpoint how that’s—how it’s possible to go from that to that.”
Biden: “Why are we waiting? We know they’re needed. And so I would be moving rapidly.”
Trump: “Something’s going on. And you oughta look into it as reporters.”
Biden: “Look at what’s happening here. You have nurses showing up wearing garbage bags as—over their bodies as protection.”
Trump: “Where are they going? Are they going out the back door?”
Biden: “We need to get them the help they need right away.”
Trump: “There’s something going on. I don’t think it’s hoarding. I think it’s maybe worse than hoarding.”
Onscreen: Choose truth over lies. Our heroes deserve better.