But he offered an uplifting message – one in line with the core theme of his campaign – about the soul of the nation, which shows in the response of the Americans to the crisis.
“We are now seeing the soul of America. See what happens. Everywhere you look, you see people trying to help people,”; said Biden. “This is an incredible nation. The American people are generous, decent, good, fair, smart, and you are so proud to be American.”
Here are five takeaways from the town hall of Biden:
Biden made two clear positions to protect Americans from the economic consequences of the pandemic: a three-month freeze on rent payments; and government coverage of all health care related coronavirus.
“Freeze it and forgive it so you can stay in that place,” said the former vice president of rental payments.
He left room for conditions and suggested in one place that the freeze may not apply to those whose income up to $ 75,000 is being replaced by unemployment insurance. But then he said, “There should be a rental freeze. No one should be driven out during this time.”
The federal government is already paying for coronavirus testing, but Biden also said the house and the Senate would need to supplement the $ 2 trillion stimulus deal approved this week to cover all health costs associated with the virus.
Biden is with Bill Gates, not Donald Trump.
The former vice president said that as president, he would recommend the governors to temporarily block their states for a period of time to stop the spread of the corona virus, and to move closer to the billionaire Microsoft founder’s suggestion that the country be a longer one Closure needed, not the president’s hope that the country would reopen in mid-April.
“For the time being, I would,” said Biden. “Here’s the point … you don’t know who doesn’t have it. You don’t know who doesn’t have the virus. So a lot of people run around looking like they’re pretty healthy and you can have the virus very well and transfer it. “
States have taken different steps to close some or most companies. Biden also said on Friday that he had spoken to a group of nation’s governors, including Jay Inslee from Washington, Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan and Tom Wolf from Pennsylvania. He said he missed a call from Louisiana’s John Bel Edwards on Friday afternoon and spoke to Republicans.
Biden rejected Trump’s claim that public efforts to combat the economic crisis could do more harm than the virus itself.
Biden described Trump’s view as a “wrong choice” and argued that the economy could only recover after the public health emergency was brought under control.
“It is a wrong decision to say that you are either opening the economy or everything is going to hell,” said Biden. “You can’t let this economy grow until you’ve dealt with the virus.”
Trump repeatedly warned this week that “healing” – in the form of efforts such as social distancing and home contracts – could be “worse than the problem” and suggested Easter as a possible date for the “opening up” of the economy, well ahead of time that most medical experts believe is safe.
“They are one and the same,” said Biden about the twin dangers. “You can only cope with the economic crisis if you deal with the health crisis.”
Joe Biden: He’s just like the rest of us.
The former vice president described his days at home in Delaware, where he followed the same “stay-at-home” instructions that now apply to millions of Americans. For Biden that means family calls and occasional visits from a couple of grandchildren who live nearby and go over to say hello.
“We are sitting on our veranda and they are sitting on the lawn with two chairs,” said Biden. “They talk about everything that happened during their day, now that they come home from school and who’s driving crazy.”
But it’s not just garden chairs and patios. Biden said that he starts with two briefings from his campaign employees every day – one on the health end of the crisis and one on the economic situation.
The health briefing covers “how much has been done” and “the equipment we can bring to people”. Then come the economists, some of whom worked with him in the White House, who discussed the stimulus package and “what the Trump administration did not do.”
Biden gave an emotional response when asked about the difficulty in not being able to be with relatives who die from coronavirus, and referred to the question of the significant loss he had suffered in life.
“I’ve lost a couple of children, I’ve lost a wife, and it’s incredibly difficult to get through, and it’s harder to get through when you haven’t had the opportunity to be with the person while they die,” Biden said. After realizing that he could be with his mother, father, and son when they died, he said that he couldn’t do the same with his first wife.
Coronavirus victims cannot be surrounded by their families at death because the virus is particularly contagious and many people die alone.
Biden asked people to “seek help” and “speak to people who have been through it so … they can tell you that you can get through it”.
Biden almost seemed to offer his cell phone number during the nationwide televised town halls, but held back and instead asked Americans who had lost loved ones to contact his campaign so he could speak to them.