Politics

Trump: Biden Wants to ‘Lock Americans in Their Basements for Months on End’

DESPERATE

“To Joe, I would say stop playing politics with the virus,” he said, after devoting a huge part of the White House briefing on COVID-19 to bashing his Democratic opponent.

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Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty

President Trump on Thursday claimed at his daily White House press conference that Joe Biden wants to “lock Americans in their basements for months on end” amid the coronavirus pandemic. Devoting a considerable chunk of the briefing to launching baffling attacks on Biden, Trump scoffed at Biden’s call for a nationwide mask mandate, accused him of “plagiarizing” Trump administration policies, and perhaps most stunningly, claimed the former vice president was “playing politics” with the health crisis. “Sleepy Joe rejects the scientific approach in favor of locking all Americans in their basements for months on end,” Trump said. He claimed Biden, who he said is using an “anti-science” approach, wants to “grind society to a halt” in a shutdown that would drive people to suicide. “To Joe, I would say stop playing politics with the virus. It’s a shameful situation for anybody to try and score political points while we’re working to save lives,” he said, after spending an inordinate amount of time at a briefing ostensibly about the country’s COVID-19 battle bashing his Democratic rival. 

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