Biden, Obama target Trump in socially distanced sit-down
Biden and Obama to team up again next Tuesday for a second fundraiser
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Joe Biden and his one-time boss – former President Barack Obama – reunited to hold a socially distanced conversation about the many challenges facing the nation right now, while ripping President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The presumptive Democratic nominee’s presidential campaign on Wednesday released a video preview of the gathering – which was held in the Washington, D.C., building where the former president’s office is located. Both men are seen arriving clad in black masks and then sitting socially distanced for their conversation.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The teaser clip starts with Biden – with disbelief – asking “can you imagine standing up when you were president saying 'it's not my responsibility. I take no responsibility.' Literally. Literally."
Obama responds, emphasizing that “those words didn't come out of our mouths while we were in office."
President Trump in March blamed the previous administration for the delays in coronavirus testing and said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” And a month later, Trump said he took no responsibility for any increase in people using disinfectants improperly a few days after publicly contemplating whether such disinfectants could treat COVID-19.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the clip, the former vice president stresses that he doesn’t understand Trump’s “inability to get a sense of what people are going through. He just can't relate in any way."
Obama responds that “one of the things I have always known about you Joe, it's the reason I wanted you to be my vice president, and the reason why you were so effective ... it all starts with being able to relate."
Showing the two men sitting in chairs and socially distanced in an office setting, the former president says “If you can sit down with a family and see your own family in them and the struggles you've gone through or your parents went through or your kids are going through, if you can connect those struggles to somebody else's struggles, then you're going to work hard for them, and that's always what's motivated you to get into public service."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere - responding to the clip - said "any suggestion that President Trump did no take the threat of COVID-19 seriously or priortize the health and safety of the American people is blatantly false."
Biden’s campaign says the two men also discussed “how the nation is grappling with systemic racism, and the current opportunity to make lasting change rooting out of these historic inequities.” The conversation is scheduled to be streamed starting Thursday on both the Biden and Obama social media channels.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The video appears to be the first time the former president and vice president have appeared together in-person since the start of the 2020 election campaign. The two men teamed up virtually when Obama endorsed Biden in April and again last month for a fundraiser that hauled in $11 million – Biden’s single most lucrative fundraising event. More than 120,000 people signed up to attend the online event.
Fox News confirmed that Biden and Obama will team up again for another fundraiser next Tuesday, July 28. The event is being described as a virtual conversation. The fundraiser was first reported by ABC News.