Statement from Joe Biden on the U.S. Surpassing Three Million COVID-19 Cases

Today’s awful — and avoidable — news that America surpassed three million COVID-19 cases is yet another sad reminder of the cost our country is paying for President Trump’s failure to lead us through this crisis.

While many countries around the world have curbed COVID-19, or even essentially eliminated it outright, infections are spiking in the United States. While other countries safely re-open their economies and their citizens get back to work, businesses in America are being forced to shut down — again — as Donald Trump’s failures make countless workers and families face an uncertain future.

President Trump claimed to the American people that he was a wartime leader, but instead of taking responsibility, Trump has waved a white flag, revealing that he ordered the slowing of testing and having his administration tell Americans that they simply need to “live with it.”

The American people have sacrificed far too much in this fight for Donald Trump to just admit defeat; they’ve done their job, and it’s long overdue for their courageous efforts to be matched with real action and leadership from the White House.

Mr. President, before you tee up for yet another round of golf, there are steps we must take — now — to win this fight and save American lives. We need to ramp up testing, get protective equipment to first responders, health care workers, and other essential workers, and we need to finally provide science-based leadership on re-opening safely.

But instead of working overtime to fix the damage from his egregious and unjustifiable mismanagement during the past six months of the worst public health crisis in generations — and despite a death toll of over 130,000 Americans — Donald Trump is instead devoting what energy he has left to dividing our nation, the opposite of a commander in chief’s duty at all times, let alone a moment of historic crisis. It’s heart wrenching, especially because the American people, when brought together with common purpose, have never, ever let their country down. With the right leadership, we will overcome this emergency and build back stronger than we ever were before.