Not long after they had insisted President Trump treated the coronavirus press briefings as though they were “a reality TV show,” ABC and chief anchor George Stephanopoulos invited former Vice President Joe Biden onto This Week to buoy his oxygen-less campaign. One of the softballs the Clinton lackey tossed to Biden encouraged him to blame Trump for the deaths caused by the coronavirus.
While the crisis was only part of their discussion, Stephanopoulos steered clear of the recent sexual assault allegations against his guest. Something he was used to doing from his time in the Clinton White House.
On the topic of the virus, he cited Biden’s campaign videos to tee him up to blame Trump for the deaths of thousands of Americans. “And your campaign videos have been quite tough on the President. You said his failures, his incompetence is going to cost lives, is that what's happening now,” he asked.
“Well look, what I have been saying is that he's moving too slow, the corona—the virus is not his fault. There’s— But the response is his responsibility,” Biden clumsily explained. Though Biden didn’t take the bait completely, he did parrot ABC’s lie that Trump was blocking those who lost their job due to the crisis from enrolling in ObamaCare.
Two of Stephanopoulos’s other coronavirus questions set up Biden to slam Trump’s concerns for the economy and concerns about instructing the public to wear masks, despite debate it could take masks from health care workers:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: The President has said many times now he's worried about the cure is going to be worse than the disease, does that concern you at all and isn't there a point there that if this lockdown goes on for too long the public health concerns could be grave?
(…)
STEPHANOPOULOS: And we’ve seen the new guidelines from the CDC saying that they believe the public should wear masks in public. President Trump said he's not going to do it, he doesn’t want to do it, but several other leading politicians are. When you go out in public going forward, will you be wearing a mask?
Towards the end of the interview, the ABC host did throw in some questions about the 2020 Democratic primary, what Biden thought about people gathering at polls and conventions, and his process for picking a vice-presidential candidate.
What was conspicuously absent was any question about the sexual assault claim made by his former Senate staffer, Tara Reade. Biden himself had said every accuser had to be believed and ABC had given plenty of airtime to bogus allegations made against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Yet, this time they didn’t want to talk about any of it.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s This Week
April 5, 2020
9:04:31 a.m. Eastern(…)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: The President has said many times now he's worried about the cure is going to be worse than the disease, does that concern you at all and isn't there a point there that if this lockdown goes on for too long the public health concerns could be grave?
FMR. VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Well, the public health concerns can be grave and you know, you saw what's happening in Singapore. They moved very rapidly to bring down the coronavirus, down to zero, and then they began to open up. They had very, very tight restrictions in terms of social distancing, et cetera, staying in place. Now it's coming back. So, you know, what we need most of all and it's not the President's fault at all, but we need most of all, a vaccine.
But in the meantime, we have to take all the efforts we can to make sure we prevent the spread and lower that curve as they talk about and move from there. And that’s why I think, George, we'll need not only the last -- C.A.R.E.S. Act that the Congress passed, which did a great deal, we're going to need at least two more iterations of that I believe to help the economy.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And we’ve seen the new guidelines from the CDC saying that they believe the public should wear masks in public. President Trump said he's not going to do it, he doesn’t want to do it, but several other leading politicians are. When you go out in public going forward, will you be wearing a mask?
BIDEN: Yes Look, I think it's important to follow the science. Listen to the experts. Do what they tell you. It's, you know, he may not look like how he looks in a mask, but the truth of the matter is, that follow the science, that's what they're telling us. So, if I go out in public and I haven't gone to commercial places of late, I haven't gone to my local church, et cetera. There are no services actually, but my generic point is, you should follow the science.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And your campaign videos have been quite tough on the President. You said his failures, his incompetence is going to cost lives, is that what's happening now?
BIDEN: Well look, what I have been saying is that he's moving too slow, the corona—the virus is not his fault. There’s— But the response is his responsibility. Look, there are few things he can do. He can immediately fully implement the Defense Production Act which I and many others called for a long time ago. And he’s just getting underway with it. There's still no Defense Supply Act – Production Act for gloves, masks all the things that first responders need.
We should create a bank defense production act. We got to get those small business loans out. You saw what American Express did – I mean, excuse me, Bank of America did. They came out and said unless you already have loans with us, unless you have a credit card with us we're not going to -- even though they're government-guaranteed loans we're not going to process those loans.
We got to save jobs and people's businesses. We have to exponentially ramp up testing. We’ve been talking about 4 million tests are going to be available, where is it? What's being done? You got to open up enrollment for Obamacare, lot of people don't have insurance, this President is trying to take Obamacare across the board which will leave people naked to this problem that we're facing.
And we have to finally get some data how this coronavirus is really hurting African-Americans and minority communities, these are things that should be done now. But you need a supply commander in charge of it all right out of the White House, right out of – in direct response to the President so we know where to get what we have to get and get it quickly.
(…)
9:10:36 a.m. Eastern
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally sir, I want to turn to some politics before we go. As you know, Wisconsin now having its primary on Tuesday, your opponent, Senator Sanders has said that should be put off and the governor now joining the chorus as well, but it looks like that's going to happen. Is that wise?
BIDEN: Well look, I think they should just follow the science. I -- What I've been hearing, I have been following like you have, like everybody has, watching the court action, it's still in court now. And -- but I think whatever – whatever the science says is what we should do.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And does that hold for the convention as well? Are you open to the idea that it may not be possible to do the convention in August?
(…)
9:12:34 a.m. Eastern
STEPHANOPOULOS: I know you talked to Bernie Sanders about your vice presidential pick. Tell us a little bit about how that he's doing. Is he ready to unify behind your candidacy and has he given you any recommendations?
(…)
