In handling—or failing to handle—the coronavirus crisis, Donald Trump is “reverting to a familiar strategy of deflecting blame and dividing Americans,” former Vice President Joe Biden writes in a Washington Post op-ed. This time around, the division Trump wants is partisan, aimed at November’s elections, “casting Democrats as doomsayers hoping to keep America grounded and Republicans as freedom fighters trying to liberate the economy.” But, Biden points out, in addition to the cravenness of that goal, there’s a huge flaw in Trump’s logic.
It’s not just that Trump hasn’t done what it takes to make it safe to reopen the country. He hasn’t put in place the rigorous testing and worker safety protections and public health guidelines required—though we know he knows testing is important, since it’s being used in the White House for his protection. But beyond that, Biden writes, “you can shout from the rooftops that we’re open for business, but the economy will not get back to full strength if the number of new cases is still rising or plateauing and people don’t believe that it’s safe to return to normal activities.” And people don’t believe that. Correctly.
You want evidence that people aren’t rushing back to reopened stores and restaurants? Biden has it: “Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) began ‘reopening’ his state’s dine-in restaurants on April 27—12 days later, according to data from restaurant-booking service OpenTable, there were still 92 percent fewer diners than there were on the same day a year ago.”
If you don’t believe the polls showing that people are worried about restrictions being lifted too quickly for public safety, that’s a pretty strong indication that people are voting with their feet. Similarly, FiveThirtyEight points to data from several states showing that people started staying home before their governors told them to do so.
Biden therefore refuses Trump’s false opposition between health and the economy, concluding that “Everybody knows that we can’t revive the latter unless we safeguard the former—and pretending otherwise is the most transparent of political ploys. Instead of once again seeking to divide us, Trump should be working to get Americans the same necessary protections he has gotten for himself.”
But of course Trump won’t do that. After all, “by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad.”