Sean Penn Changes His Mind About Joe Biden Due to Coronavirus

Actor-turned-author Sean Penn admitted that he had changed his mind about former Vice President [...]

By Michael Hein

Actor-turned-author Sean Penn admitted that he had changed his mind about former Vice President Joe Biden based on his plan for the coronavirus pandemic. On Friday, Penn took to Twitter to share how he had been "ambivalent" over Biden until hearing his recent remarks about COVID-19. Penn believes that Biden's response to this crisis alone makes him the ideal candidate for the 2020 presidential election.

On Friday evening, Penn wrote that he had "just heard Biden on COVID strategy," perhaps belatedly viewing Thursday night's debate. Penn also noted that he has been "working test sites since day one," and "talking to Fauci and all the top scientists" for his own non-profit efforts to help his community deal with the pandemic. To Penn, Biden's plan is "EVERYTHING that will get America back to work and FLOURISHING."

"I'd been ambivalent about Biden. My ambivalence is gone," he went on. "Biden for America."
Penn has been on the front lines of the coronavirus response in the Los Angeles, California area through his organization, Community Organized Relief Effort — C.O.R.E. Penn founded C.O.R.E. over a decade ago, and it has provided aid to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew, among other projects. This year, it took a more domestic approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Still, many Twitter followers were skeptical of Penn's claim to expertise. Some argued that he was becoming unduly political, arguing in favor of President Donald Trump. This sparked heated arguments in the replies to Penn's original tweet.

Others agreed with Penn, even admitting that they were warming up to Biden as well. Some said that they were already planning on voting for Biden but were not enthusiastic about it until it came to the pandemic.

One analysis, published by Vox, suggested that Biden swayed a lot of voters with his pandemic rhetoric on Thursday by acknowledging it as a national problem, not a state-by-state problem. By contrast, Trump continues to deflect blame for the death toll onto individual states and their leaders, politicizing the issue in the process. Biden answered: "I don't look at this in terms of the way he does, blue states and red states, they're all in the United States.

At the time of this writing, Biden is leading in national polls by about 9.8 points, according to a report by The Guardian. Still, with early voting, absentee voting and in-person polling picking up, the tallying of the vote could become a complicated issue over the next few weeks. Election Day is on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020.

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