Why Did Biden Oppose Trump's China Travel Restrictions In January?

[Aunt Antifa]

Lying - the #1 Democratic Party tactic.

You can’t point to him arguing against travel restrictions. Not a single word.

We do know Trump told us anyone who wants a test can get a test.

 

[Aletheia]

Those comments were in regard to trade, When it came to the virus, the President was complimentary to China.

And Biden was explicitly talking about the virus. "“We have, right now, a crisis with the coronavirus,” Biden said in Iowa Friday. “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia - hysterical xenophobia - and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.”

I still see no direct connection between the two. Does Donald Trump have a history of xenophobia and fear-mongering, absolutely. Does he have a history of ignoring science for his own agenda, absolutely. If I was to dig deeper prior to the day, I expect that I could find examples inline with that behavior. I see nothing inconsistent from Joe here. I understand how you might want to connect the two things, but there really isn't anything outside of coincidence there. Could he have meant to connect those events -- possibly, possibly not. I did try to find the original Biden transcript, to get more context, but could not. His own team explicitly clarified he did not intend to link them together.

Trump also said he got a letter from Biden, apologizing about this. Biden denied it. Without seeing the letter, I can't say for certain if Trump is lying. But I would sure take Biden's word over his. You think Trump wouldn't hold that letter up to the press in order to gloat, if it was true?

PolitiFact | Fact-checking whether Biden called Trump ‘xenophobic’ for restrictions on travel from China

 

[Rawley]

Not my spin. I just quoted an article with a different take.
Did you read the full article . If you had read the article you would see how both sides spin. Context is important.

I did. They rated it mostly false, entirely based on the second Biden tweet, completely ignoring his similar statement, the day before at a campaign rally, the day the President announced the travel restrictions. They were spinning for the Biden campaign.

 

[Cardinal]

The context is that it was the day the President announced the travel restrictions from China.

What's the full, unabridged statement? Not your summary of it, but the unedited, uninterpreted statement, all in in context?

 

[Greenbeard]

The day Trump restricted travel to China in order to buy the U. S. months of necessary time, on January 30, Biden made these comments, speaking to a crowd in Iowa:

Buy necessary time? Let's review what Trump did.

Trump spent three years dismantling global disease surveillance and pandemic preparedness, as well as hamstringing our ability to respond to any such outbreaks.

US public health agency to cut global surveillance by 80% (2018)
The administration is setting up the US to botch a pandemic response. (2018)
Cuts to CDC epidemic programs will endanger Americans, former chief says (2018)
U.S. slashed CDC staff inside China prior to coronavirus outbreak

If there was a way to ignore the possibility of a pandemic or reduce our readiness to respond to one, Trump found it.

DHS wound down pandemic models before coronavirus struck
Before Trump’s inauguration, a warning: ‘The worst influenza pandemic since 1918’
The U.S. had a pandemic war game called Dark Winter. Trump ignored its warnings.
Trump administration failed "Crimson Contagion" pandemic exercise.
Trump Admin Ducked Massive Mask Manufacturing Plan in 2018: Report

When the warning signs flashed red, he failed to react.

Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook
U.S. ‘wasted’ months before preparing for virus pandemic
U.S. intelligence reports from January and February warned about a likely pandemic

The airlines, not Trump, led the way on travel restrictions.

US airlines suspend flights to mainland China as coronavirus spreads

Trump was busy overruling the CDC to bring the infected back.

State Department reportedly overruled CDC to fly coronavirus-infected Americans home.

And in the months that followed his "ban" turned out to not be so much of a ban after all.

430,000 People Have Traveled From China to U.S. Since Coronavirus Surfaced

His Swiss cheese partial travel restrictions bought him time to do...nothing.

The Lost Month: How a Failure to Test Blinded the U.S. to COVID-19
What Derailed America’s Covid Testing: Three Lost Weeks
The lost month

With the time you're pretending his pseudo-ban bought, he did nothing to act. Next to nothing to ramp up production of PPE or protect the supply chain, nothing to get in place the infrastructure to trace and isolate cases, nothing to coordinate a national response. As recently as July, a re-hash of pleas made to the administration to act eight months ago:Virus Surge Brings Calls for Trump to Invoke Defense Production Act.

All he did with the time was lie to the public, downplay the threat, and undermine every public health action others were taking.

It's September. We're still waiting for a national response. Trump bought us nothing. He lied, and 200,000 have died.

 

[ReubenSherr]

Buy necessary time? Let's review what Trump did.

Trump spent three years dismantling global disease surveillance and pandemic preparedness, as well as hamstringing our ability to respond to any such outbreaks.

US public health agency to cut global surveillance by 80% (2018)
The administration is setting up the US to botch a pandemic response. (2018)
Cuts to CDC epidemic programs will endanger Americans, former chief says (2018)
U.S. slashed CDC staff inside China prior to coronavirus outbreak

If there was a way to ignore the possibility of a pandemic or reduce our readiness to respond to one, Trump found it.

DHS wound down pandemic models before coronavirus struck
Before Trump’s inauguration, a warning: ‘The worst influenza pandemic since 1918’
The U.S. had a pandemic war game called Dark Winter. Trump ignored its warnings.
Trump administration failed "Crimson Contagion" pandemic exercise.
Trump Admin Ducked Massive Mask Manufacturing Plan in 2018: Report

When the warning signs flashed red, he failed to react.

Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook
U.S. ‘wasted’ months before preparing for virus pandemic
U.S. intelligence reports from January and February warned about a likely pandemic

The airlines, not Trump, led the way on travel restrictions.

US airlines suspend flights to mainland China as coronavirus spreads

Trump was busy overruling the CDC to bring the infected back.

State Department reportedly overruled CDC to fly coronavirus-infected Americans home.

And in the months that followed his "ban" turned out to not be so much of a ban after all.

430,000 People Have Traveled From China to U.S. Since Coronavirus Surfaced

His Swiss cheese partial travel restrictions bought him time to do...nothing.

The Lost Month: How a Failure to Test Blinded the U.S. to COVID-19
What Derailed America’s Covid Testing: Three Lost Weeks
The lost month

With the time you're pretending his pseudo-ban bought, he did nothing to act. Next to nothing to ramp up production of PPE or protect the supply chain, nothing to get in place the infrastructure to trace and isolate cases, nothing to coordinate a national response. As recently as July, a re-hash of pleas made to the administration to act eight months ago:Virus Surge Brings Calls for Trump to Invoke Defense Production Act.

You seem to be avoiding the topic of the thread.

Biden claims he would have shut down the country a week earlier and saved thousands of lives.

Yet he accused Trump of “fear-mongering” in response to the virus.

How do you square away that one?

Plus, how many additional lives would have been lost, under God forbid a President Biden, if he had refused to shut down travel to China because of his loyalty to its Communist government? Or because he thought it wouldn’t have been PC?

 

[Rawley]

I still see no direct connection between the two.

Really? You think it's just a matter of simple coincidence that the day the President announces the travel restrictions from China becasue of the virus, Biden criticisms him saying “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia - hysterical xenophobia - and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.” Just coincidence?

 

[Rawley]

What's the full, unabridged statement? Not your summary of it, but the unedited, uninterpreted statement, all in in context?

Watch the video, if you are really that concerned about context.

 

[Cardinal]

Watch the video, if you are really that concerned about context.

The video doesn't work for me. What's the full, unabridged statement? Not your summary of it, but the unedited, uninterpreted statement?

 

[Fred C Dobbs II]

I still see no direct connection between the two. Does Donald Trump have a history of xenophobia and fear-mongering, absolutely. Does he have a history of ignoring science for his own agenda, absolutely. If I was to dig deeper prior to the day, I expect that I could find examples inline with that behavior. I see nothing inconsistent from Joe here. I understand how you might want to connect the two things, but there really isn't anything outside of coincidence there. Could he have meant to connect those events -- possibly, possibly not. I did try to find the original Biden transcript, to get more context, but could not. His own team explicitly clarified he did not intend to link them together.

Trump also said he got a letter from Biden, apologizing about this. Biden denied it. Without seeing the letter, I can't say for certain if Trump is lying. But I would sure take Biden's word over his. You think Trump wouldn't hold that letter up to the press in order to gloat, if it was true?

PolitiFact | Fact-checking whether Biden called Trump ‘xenophobic’ for restrictions on travel from China
View attachment 67294818

You should be able to decide for yourself what is the truth, mostly false, or false. You don't need a website, which has also proven to be 'mostly false' on occasion, to tell you that. No website is bias free.

 

[Aletheia]

You should be able to decide for yourself what is the truth, mostly false, or false. You don't need a website, which has also proven to be 'mostly false' on occasion, to tell you that. No website is bias free.

I don't need to convince myself. I'm posting to convince those of you that seem to need convincing outside of facts and logic. You seem to like appealing to authority.

 

[Aletheia]

Really? You think it's just a matter of simple coincidence that the day the President announces the travel restrictions from China becasue of the virus, Biden criticisms him saying “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia - hysterical xenophobia - and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.” Just coincidence?

Yes, it is. There were all kinds of other things going on around that time. For you to make a link to something without a direct connection or quote from the source is just making up your own tenuous version of what he intended to say.

 

[iguanaman]

Initially, he called Trump's travel restrictions xenophobic.

And if he had been successful in deterring Trump from imposing these restrictions, he might have cost thousands of lives.

He also accused Trump of "fear mongering."

And we are supposed to believe Joe when he tells us he would have immediately locked down the country?

The ban was xenophobic and more importantly not very effective. Did Trump think only Chinese nationals could spread the virus? 1000's of American's came back from China after the ban and even those that visited Wuhan were not quarantined or even told that they may be carrying an infectious disease. Oh and Biden never called the ban xenophobic either he said he supported any measure that epidemiologists recommended.

BIDEN ON THE ‘BAN’

TRUMP: “He opposed my very strict travel ban on Chinese nationals to stop the spread of the China virus. He was totally against it. ‘Xenophobic,’ he called me. ‘Xenophobic.’ A month later, he admitted I was right.” — Rose Garden.

THE FACTS: No, Biden did not come out against the travel restrictions on China. He said little about them at the time. In April, his campaign said he supported travel restrictions if “guided by medical experts.”

Biden did say Trump has a record of xenophobia, a comment made during an Iowa campaign event when the restrictions were announced. Biden said Trump was “fear-mongering” against foreigners and the Democrat took issue with Trump’s references to the “China virus” as an example. He did not address the travel steps.

Trump has claimed that Biden realized he was right after all about restricting travel from China and wrote him a “letter of apology.” This didn’t happen, either.

AP FACT CHECK: Trump and the virus-era China ban that isn'''t

 

[ReubenSherr]

The ban was xenophobic and more importantly not very effective. Did Trump think only Chinese nationals could spread the virus? 1000's of American's came back from China after the ban and even those that visited Wuhan were not quarantined or even told that they may be carrying an infectious disease. Oh and Biden never called the ban xenophobic either he said he supported any measure that epidemiologists recommended.



AP FACT CHECK: Trump and the virus-era China ban that isn'''t

Typical liberal fact checkers lol.

One day after Trump put the travel ban into place, Joe made these comments.

He was referring to the travel ban. You referred to the travel ban being xenophobic in your own post.

The travel ban was a significant factor concerning why our deaths per cases stayed so low.

Trump bought us valuable time.

 

[Greenbeard]

You seem to be avoiding the topic of the thread.

Trump's disastrous non-response is the topic of any COVID thread. Particularly when the laughable claim that Trump "bought us time" (to do what?) is made.

It's a story that's impacted the lives of every American.

Yet he accused Trump of “fear-mongering” in response to the virus.

How do you square away that one?

Biden said Trump is exactly the wrong person to have in charge during this crisis. Trump's disastrous results amply demonstrate that Biden was correct.

Plus, how many additional lives would have been lost, under God forbid a President Biden, if he had refused to shut down travel to China because of his loyalty to its Communist government? Or because he thought it wouldn’t have been PC?

What would that look like? Xi and the American president deliberately concealing from the world the seriousness of the threat?

 

[ReubenSherr]

Trump's disastrous non-response is the topic of any COVID thread. Particularly when the laughable claim that Trump "bought us time" (to do what?) is made.

What is clear here is that you are frightened to discuss your own candidate.

 

[ReubenSherr]

Biden said Trump is exactly the wrong person to have in charge during this crisis. Trump's disastrous results amply demonstrate that Biden was correct.

Lol, again, nice try.

How do we know that, under Biden's leadership, we wouldn't have had the same case count, but 10 times the deaths per cases?

That truly would have been a tragedy.

Italy did not shut off travel to China, we did, and look at Italy's deaths per cases.

Italy's rate of deaths per cases was 12.5%.

Ours was 2.9%.

 

[Greenbeard]

What is clear here is that you are frightened to discuss your own candidate.

My candidate didn't deliberately conceal the severity of the pandemic, fail to respond, and decide to watch 200,000 Americans die instead of doing his job.

 

[Greenbeard]

How do we know that, under Biden's leadership, we wouldn't have had the same case count, but 10 times the deaths per cases?

We had epidemics and pandemics on the Obama-Biden watch. You don't remember them because they weren't allowed to destroy the American way of life and tank our entire economy.

Leadership matters. We haven't had any since Obama left.

 

[ReubenSherr]

We had epidemics and pandemics on the Obama-Biden watch.

Very weak argument.

Pandemics which infected 27.9 million people worldwide?

 

[ReubenSherr]

Leadership matters. We haven't had any since Obama left.

This is a very telling post.

Notice that you didn't say that Biden would be a competent leader.

You said Obama was a good leader.

 

[Greenbeard]

This is a very telling post.

Notice that you didn't say that Biden would be a competent leader.

You said Obama was a good leader.

Biden will be a competent leader. But he'll be following one of the worst presidential performances we've ever seen, so it won't be all that hard to look good following Trump's catastrophic failures.

 

[Rawley]

The video doesn't work for me. What's the full, unabridged statement? Not your summary of it, but the unedited, uninterpreted statement?

Well, you should figure out how to make the video work if you really want more context.

 

[ReubenSherr]

Biden will be a competent leader. But he'll be following one of the worst presidential performances we've ever seen, so it won't be all that hard to look good following Trump's catastrophic failures.

Lol you’re doing everything possible to deflect the conversation away from Biden.

Not a good sign for what’s to come.

 

[Rawley]

Yes, it is. There were all kinds of other things going on around that time. For you to make a link to something without a direct connection or quote from the source is just making up your own tenuous version of what he intended to say.

OK. What in the President's record made Biden think of xenophobia on that particular day?