RNC Chair Ridiculed For Criticizing Joe Biden's Coronavirus Response
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel faced ridicule on Sunday after she attacked Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for what she called his “disastrous record responding to the coronavirus.”
Unlike the leader of McDaniels’ party, the former vice president has not been in office during the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 190,000 people and infected more than 6.5 million in the U.S.
“Joe Biden can’t run from his disastrous record responding to the coronavirus,” McDaniel tweeted. “The truth hurts, Joe!”
She shared a clip from an ABC “This Week” segment earlier in the day. Host George Stephanopoulos had pressed Biden senior adviser Symone Sanders about the presidential candidate’s comments on the outbreak during its early stages.
He said Biden highlighted the need for a plan of attack but did not explicitly call for social distancing, travel bans or wearing masks.
“In January and February, Joe Biden was not being briefed by national security experts who warned him how deadly the virus was,” Sanders replied.
In the rest of her response, which was cut out in the clip McDaniels shared, Sanders continued: “In January and February, Joe Biden did not have the knowledge that President Trump did. But I will tell you, that if Joe Biden were president ... he would have taken proper precautions. He would have warned the American people.”
Joe Biden can’t run from his disastrous record responding to the coronavirus.
The truth hurts, Joe!
https://t.co/uBERkgHwJX— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) September 13, 2020
Trump played down the risks of coronavirus for months before finally declaring a national emergency on March 13. Last week, veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book “Rage” revealed that Trump was aware of the virus’ dangers while he repeatedly told the public it was no big deal. Trump admitted in a recorded Feb. 7 interview that the virus was five times deadlier than the flu. In a March 19 interview, he said he liked to downplay the severity of the outbreak because he didn’t want to “create a panic.”
Two epidemiologists estimated in April that 90 percent of deaths could have been avoided had mitigation measures been enacted just two weeks earlier.
McDaniels attacked Biden similarly (while defending Trump) during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press” earlier on Sunday. Host Chuck Todd had asked her about America’s poor outcome from the pandemic compared to other Western countries.
“If Democrats were in charge, if Joe Biden had his way, go look at his statements in January when he said the president was being xenophobic,” she said. (Biden called Trump xenophobic in response to a Trump tweet about limiting entry to travelers from China in which he referred to coronavirus as the “Chinese Virus”).
Todd reminded McDaniels: “He’s not the president.”
Other critics offered their own reminders on Twitter and cracked about other events that did not occur during Biden’s time in office that he also apparently failed to prevent:
Joe Biden can’t run from his disastrous record responding to the Extinction Level Event that killed the dinosaurs. ☄️ 🦕 🦖
The truth hurts, Joe!— David+ (@DavidOStorm) September 13, 2020
Joe Biden can’t run from his disastrous record responding to The Great Plague of London in 1665.
The truth hurts, Joe!— 🏝Kim (@kim) September 13, 2020
Ronna’s right, it’s time to vote President Biden out of office and elect Trump to fix the mess of the last four years https://t.co/OGweaxlhPh
— Ali A. Rizvi (@aliamjadrizvi) September 13, 2020
This tweet verifies just how stupid Ronna Romney McDaniel and the rest of the Trump campaign believe their cult followers to be. https://t.co/nGY6SC9ki6
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) September 13, 2020
What Ronna McDaniel just gave away: Donald Trump’s presidency is such a failure, his only hope of reelection comes down to convincing people that Joe Biden has actually been the president these past four years.
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) September 13, 2020
.@GOPChairwoman, let me fix this for you. Like most Americans, you may want to forget the reality of Trump. While you morons made jokes about the basement, your boss was directly leading to 200,000 dead Americans. @JoeBiden will be the next President. Truth hurts Ronna. https://t.co/ed4wMwTW19
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) September 13, 2020
Good Lord, this is embarrassing.
Do you think the other Romneys are all relieved that Trump asked you to drop the family name and you cravenly obliged?— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) September 13, 2020
Joe Biden is not the president until January, Ronna. Or should I say, Rona? https://t.co/W6d7SlApTE
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) September 13, 2020
Once a nice and reasonable person, Ronna has become a chief gaslighter and has totally destroyed her reputation and career. “The President is the wrong person for the job... it’s a conclusion based on real evidence.” @realBobWoodward Resign Ronna! https://t.co/fBBtNHyDC7
— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) September 13, 2020
Someone should inform Ronna McDoofus that Joe Biden was not the President when COVID-19 hit us, nor is he currently the President.
YET. https://t.co/TB4lFOxlPK— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) September 13, 2020
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.