Joe Biden responded to the news that 2.1 million more Americans filed for unemployment by reminding the nation that Trump has caused a depression.
In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA from the Biden campaign:
Today, we learned that another 2.1 million people filed for unemployment last week, bringing the total number of new unemployment claims since this crisis began to more than 40 million. This is just the latest evidence of Donald Trump’s utter failure to do what a president should and must do: lead in a crisis. He ignored the warnings, refused to prepare the country, and wasn’t honest with the American people about what was needed — and we are all living with the horrific results. Now, nearly a quarter of the American workforce has filed for unemployment — a figure so staggering that it would have seemed unthinkable not long ago.
Though the coronavirus is to blame for planting the seeds of this damage, we know that Donald Trump’s persistent failure to act is responsible for the tragic and unprecedented scale of the crisis. Trump was warned for months about the urgency of the situation, but sat on his hands — undermining public health experts and spinning false promises to the American people to prop up his political standing at the expense of public safety.
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Germany, by contrast, had its first reported case of coronavirus almost a week after the United States, but has suffered only a tiny fraction of the unemployment we’ve faced thanks to a swift and effective public health response. Millions more Americans would be employed today—and our lives would have a far greater semblance of normalcy—had Trump responded with similar resolve. A devastating study released last week found that 36,000 people could have been saved had Trump taken action even one week earlier. Instead, more than 100,000 Americans have been lost forever, and the day-to-day lives and future dreams of 40 million people and their families have been thrown off course.
The reason why other countries are in a recession and not a depression is that their governments were competent and acted appropriately. Trump tried to talk his way out of the pandemic, ignored the problem, and was slow to act until it was too late.
The President is still wasting his time blaming others instead of acting.
Other countries aren’t suffering like people in the United States are, and the way to stop the pain is to end the presidency of Donald Trump.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
