Biden blasts Trump as U.S. coronavirus cases top 2 million
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[June 12, 2020]
By James Oliphant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the number of
U.S. coronavirus cases now topping 2 million, Democratic presidential
candidate Joe Biden on Thursday blasted anew President Donald Trump’s
handling of the pandemic, saying Trump “still refuses to take the virus
seriously.”
Noting that the number of COVID-19 cases continued to rise in more than
20 states, Biden, who will face Trump in the Nov. 3 election, accused
the Republican president of “trying to ignore reality.”
“Just like Donald Trump could not wish the disease away in April, or
tweet it away in May, he can't ignore it away in June,” Biden, who was
vice president under Barack Obama, said in a statement.
"Even now, after the incredible toll our country has already paid,
President Trump still refuses to take the virus seriously," Biden added.
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Trump's campaign responded by pointing to the president's travel
restrictions from China, saying they saved "countless lives."
"Under the president’s leadership, the United States has conducted more
virus tests than all other nations combined," said campaign spokesman
Tim Murtaugh. "Joe Biden, meanwhile, continues to lob ineffective
partisan bombs from the sidelines, looking for relevance where there is
none."
Trump's campaign said on Wednesday it would hold a rally – his first in
months since the pandemic shut down most of the country – on June 19 in
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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![](../images/061220pics/news_t37.jpg)
Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe
Biden attends a campaign event devoted to the reopening of the U.S.
economy during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 11, 2020. REUTERS/Bastiaan
Slabbers
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Both Biden and Trump held small-scale roundtable events on Thursday
with Biden in Philadelphia and the president in Dallas. Both are
scheduled to hold fundraisers in the evening.
More than 116,000 people in the United States have died during the
coronavirus outbreak, the most of any country. About half a dozen
states including Texas and Arizona are grappling with a rising
number of coronavirus patients filling hospital beds, fanning
concerns that the reopening of the U.S. economy may spark a second
wave of infections.
The U.S. stock market fell more than 1,800 points on Thursday over
worries of a pandemic resurgence.
(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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