In livestreamed remarks from his home in Delaware on Thursday, former Vice President Joe Biden cautioned that surprisingly good jobs numbers released earlier in the day were “just not an honest assessment of what’s happening” in the nation’s economy—and accused President Donald Trump of “spiking the football” with the nation still in a deep recession. “Until this president faces what’s going on in this country, our economy’s going to remain at risk,” Biden said, citing more than 588,000 permanent job losses in the month of June and a record-breaking 50,000 new cases of COVID-19 nationwide the day before. “Quit claiming victory with almost 15 million Americans out of work,” Biden said, addressing the president who he said would “rather go back to the campaign rallies” than address the economic crisis caused by the unfettered spread of the novel coronavirus that has claimed nearly 130,000 American lives. “Lead,” Biden said, “or get out of the way so others can.”
