President Trump said on Wednesday night that he’d love to hear from former Vice President Joseph R. Biden about fighting the coronavirus.
No, really.
“Sure. Oh absolutely, I’d love to speak to him,” Mr. Trump said at the White House coronavirus briefing. “If he’d like to call, I’d absolutely take his call.”
Mr. Biden’s campaign said earlier in the day that the Democratic frontrunner, who has roundly criticized the administration’s response to the pandemic, was willing to speak with the president.
“Vice President Biden has been extending his advice for months, and he did so again on the air last night,” said deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfied. “As he has said repeatedly, Donald Trump is not accountable for coronavirus itself — but he is accountable for the federal government’s slow and chaotic response to this outbreak.”
Mr. Trump said again that he inherited a “broken” system to respond to widespread infectious disease outbreaks. But he said he’d be happy to speak with Mr. Biden, whom he regularly ridicules as “Sleepy Joe.”
“I always found him to be a nice guy; I don’t know him very well, frankly,” he said. “But I think he’s probably a nice guy.”
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway had criticized Mr. Biden earlier Wednesday for not calling the president to offer advice.
“I think it’s really disappointing to have President Obama’s number two, who apparently doesn’t talk much to him, out there criticizing instead of saying, hey, here’s what we did that we thought was effective,” she said on “Fox & Friends.” “Why doesn’t Vice President Biden call the White House today and offer some support? He’s in his bunker in Wilmington, and I have to tell you we’re not talking about politics here at the White House at all. We’re talking about ventilators and vaccines, not Biden and Bernie.”
