Biden offers to call Trump at White House to discuss coronavirus response strategy
By Brooke Singman | Fox News-1 April 2020
EXCLUSIVE: Former Vice President Joe Biden is offering to call President Trump to discuss a strategy to combat the coronavirus pandemic rocking the nation, Fox News has learned.
Biden’s offer comes after Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, challenged him to “call the White House today and offer some support.”
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment on whether the president would be receptive to Biden's offer for a phone call, or when the proposed phone call between the two could take place.Biden has been offering advice and warnings to Trump about the coronavirus in media interviews and appearances for months. Wednesday, however, is the first time the former vice president is offering to speak with the president directly.
"Vice President Biden has been extending his advice for months, and he did so again on the air last night," Biden's deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield told Fox News. "As he has said repeatedly, Donald Trump is not accountable for coronavirus itself — but he is accountable for the federal government's slow and chaotic response to this outbreak."
"Unfortunately, Trump spent months after the virus was discovered disregarding repeated warnings from his scientific and intelligence experts, and downplaying the threat of this outbreak to the American people," she continued. "He could have heeded Vice President Biden's public advice not to take China's word as they misled the world about their efforts to stop the spread."
Bedingfield added: "The Obama-Biden administration even wrote a literal playbook for pandemic response, but unfortunately Trump's administration left it on the shelf. Now we have more coronavirus cases than any other country."
Biden will likely be the Democratic nominee, after reclaiming his front-runner status on Super Tuesday and notching victories in subsequent primary contests to build a huge delegate lead over rival Bernie Sanders.
KELLYANNE CONWAY SAYS BIDEN SHOULD 'OFFER SOME SUPPORT' ON CORONAVIRUS
Biden, during the coronavirus outbreak, has been hosting virtual press conferences and has often criticized the president’s response to the outbreak.
Conway, during an interview Wednesday morning with “Fox & Friends” criticized Biden, instead, for not directly offering his support to Trump.
“I think it’s really disappointing to have President Obama’s number two, who apparently doesn’t talk much to him, out there, criticizing, instead of saying 'hey, here is what we did that we thought was effective,'” Conway explained.
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“Why doesn’t Vice President Biden call the White House today and offer some support?” Conway asked, noting that Biden is “in his bunker” in Wilmington, Del.
Conway went on to maintain that the White House is not focused on political rhetoric, but instead a response to curb the outbreak of COVID-19.
“I have to tell you, we’re not talking about politics here at the White House at all,” she explained. We’re talking about ventilators and vaccines, not Biden and Bernie. There’s really no time for that, but it’s very disappointing when you see the criticism.”
She added: “I think the critics and the naysayers seem so much more small and so much more shrill and unhelpful and petty than they ever have.”
Later, Conway told reporters that she has "yet to hear a single idea from Vice President Biden that would be helpful to the American people or that is different from what we are doing.”
As of midday Wednesday, the U.S. reported 190,740 positive cases of COVID-19 and more than 4,100 deaths.
The White House coronavirus task force, meanwhile, has pleaded with Americans to abide by the administration’s extended social distancing guidelines to slow the spread of COVID-19.
During Tuesday's briefing, the president himself told Americans to brace for “a very painful two weeks and warned of thousands more virus-related deaths.
“The surge is coming, and it’s coming pretty strong,” Trump said Tuesday night, in a change of tone from previous press briefings.
“This is going to be a rough two-week period,” Trump said. “As a nation, we’re going to have a really rough two weeks. Our strength will be tested and our endurance will be tried.”
At another point, Trump said: "This could be a hell of a bad two weeks. This is going to be a very bad two or maybe even three weeks. This is going to be three weeks like we've never seen before."
The extension of the social distancing guidelines comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and other public health officials ominously warned that even if the U.S. were to continue to do what it was doing -- keeping the economy closed and most Americans in their homes -- the coronavirus could still leave 100,000 to 240,000 people in the United States dead and millions infected.
Without any measures in place to mitigate the contagion's spread, those projections jump to between 1.5 and 2.2 million deaths from COVID-19.
“It is absolutely critical for the American people to follow the guidelines,” Trump said during the briefing. “It’s a matter of life and death.”
The new “30 Days to Slow the Spread” guidelines -- unveiled at the press conference -- are an extension of the strategy the White House implemented just over two weeks ago and include guidance on social distancing, working from home, washing hands frequently, and avoiding any unnecessary travel.
