In January, former vice president Joe Biden was right there on the frontlines to call President Trump a racist and a xenophobe for closing off travel to and from China once he learned of the novel coronavirus's origins in Wuhan. A couple months later, and we clearly see how much worse the outbreak in the U.S. could have been had he not given that order.
Biden sees it too. That's why he did an about-face and came out in support of Trump's China travel ban a few weeks ago. Then Biden suggested Trump hasn't done enough in holding China accountable. The presumptive Democratic nominee shared a campaign ad accusing Trump of "rolling over for the Chinese."
But Biden can't win. The ACLU leadership is now accusing him of xenophobia for trying to "out-Trump Trump." Here's ACLU deputy legal director Cecillia Wang arguing that Biden's rhetoric would lead to violence against Asian Americans.
Wow ?@JoeBiden?. Already trying to out-Trump Trump. This kind of fearmongering is causing violent attacks on Asian Americans. If you are trying to reform your past history of racist policymaking, like your 1994 crime bill, you had better do some homework. This ain’t it. pic.twitter.com/ePHiVGQFf3
— Cecillia Wang (@WangCecillia) April 19, 2020
Wang tells her followers that she "desperately" wants Biden to beat Trump, with a caveat.
"But I don’t want him to foment racist scapegoating," she said. "And I want him to build a platform all of us can fight for, and in carrying it out for us once he is in office. Once again, this ain’t it."
What she calls "racist scapegoating," medical experts have called lifesaving. Dr. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force team, explained that Trump's swift travel ban likely slowed the spread and spared thousands of lives.
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Trump and other top Republicans have zero doubts about China's culpability in the coronavirus pandemic. New evidence suggests that the virus escaped from a lab in Wuhan where they were testing coronaviruses, and then the government proceeded to cover-up the crisis and silence whistleblowers. In addition to banning travel to the region, the president has also stripped U.S. funding from the World Health Organization for its role in the Chinese cover-up of the deadly virus.
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