Former Vice President Joe Biden took a shot at current President Donald Trump on Twitter Thursday by comparing tweets the two made on October 25, 2019. The first was Biden quote-tweeting an article from The Washington Post about pandemic preparedness — or the lack thereof. The second was Trump complaining to Apple CEO Tim Cook about the iPhone’s lack of a home button.
The first tweet began with Biden writing that the U.S. “is not prepared for a global pandemic,” and citing actions from the president as a primary reason. “Trump has rolled back progress President Obama and I made to strengthen global health security,” Biden continued. “We need leadership that builds public trust, focuses on real threats, and mobilizes the world to stop outbreaks before they reach our shores.” Trump’s tweet, meanwhile, addressed Cook directly, reading “the button on the iPhone was FAR better than the swipe!”
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Two tweets from the same day in October. pic.twitter.com/rsSslLCsTW
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 28, 2020
Biden’s tweet comes as the U.S. death toll from coronavirus surpassed 100,000, with more than 1.5 million confirmed cases. Despite Trump’s insistence to the contrary, he and his administration have received significant criticism over their handling of the pandemic. Particularly after two recent studies that directly contradicted the president’s repeated claims.
The first was a federally-funded study from the National Institutes of Health, which found evidence that taking hydroxychloroquine led to more fatalities from patients who’d contracted COVID-19. “If you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape,” Trump said, who’s been a vocal proponent of the drug despite a lack of medical evidence. “They were very old, almost dead,” he added about the deceased, calling the study “a Trump enemy statement.”
The second was from Columbia University, which found that the death toll could potentially be half of what it is now had proper social distancing techniques been implemented much sooner. Trump called the university “an institution that’s very liberal,” claiming their study was “just a political hit job, you want to know the truth.”
Biden, meanwhile, has been dealing with a fair amount of criticism himself over recent comments made to Charlamagne Tha God over his comments about black voters. Though the likely Democratic nominee has since apologized, they’ve been met with considerably mixed responses from potential voters.
