Trump’s ‘malpractice’ made it matter of life or death for Americans working during COVID-19: Biden

Being a working American during the COVID-19 pandemic has become a matter of life or death due to the poor economic policies of President Donald Trump, Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president Joe Biden has said.

Ladies and gentlemen, no matter what he (Trump) says or what he claims, you are not safe in Donald Trump's America where people are dying at a rate last seen when Americans were fighting in World War II. Donald Trump's malpractice during this pandemic has made being a working American life or death work, Biden said in his remarks on economy in Wilmington.

While there's a disproportionate impact on Black, Latino, Asian American, and Native American working class communities white working class communities are being hit hard, too, Biden alleged while speaking in front of a dark blue curtain with a 'Build Back Better' poster hanging behind him.

In addition to a group of press reporters there was no audience in the extremely quiet gym.

Biden alleged that the economic policies of Trump has resulted in a "K-shaped recovery".

When the crisis started, we all hoped for a few months of a shutdown followed by a rapid economic turnaround. No one thought they'd lose their job for good or see small businesses shut down in mass. But that kind of recovery requires leadership leadership we just don't have, he said.

As a result, economists are starting to call this a K-shaped recovery which is a fancy phrase for what's been wrong with everything about Trump's presidency. The 'K' means that those at the top see things go up, but those in the middle and below see things get worse, he said.

That's no surprise because at the root of this is the fact that Trump has managed COVID to become a K-shaped pandemic. First, the president's chaotic mismanagement of the pandemic is still holding us back. And compared to other major industrial countries in Europe and Asia during the pandemic, our unemployment rate has still more than doubled while those nations have only gone up by less than half, he said.

Biden alleged that the president has badly botched the COVID-19 response. One cannot deal with the economic crisis until one beats the pandemic, he said.

You can't have a full economic comeback, when almost 1,000 Americans die each day from COVID, when the death toll is about to reach 200,000, when more than six million Americans have been infected, and when millions more are worried about getting sick and dying as schools and businesses try to reopen. And we all know it didn't have to be this bad if the president just did his job, he said.

If he just took this virus seriously early on in January and February as it spread around the globe. If he just took the steps we needed back in March and April to institute widespread testing and tracing to control the spread. If he provided clear, national, and science-based guidance to state and local authorities, and if he had just set a good example like social distancing and mask wearing. Not that much to ask, he said.

But it's almost like he doesn't care because it doesn't affect him and his class of friends. Anyone with a big enough checkbook can get a rapid test on demand. If you don't, you might have to wait in line for hours and weeks for results if you can get a test at all," he said.

"If you have the kind of job where you can work on your laptop at home, or remotely your risk of getting COVID at work is small, Biden said.