In an interview with Nicolle Wallace yesterday, Joe Biden expresses his frustration with Trump's refusal to implement the Defense Production Act.
"If he is not going to use it, lend it to somebody else. You're a wartime president? Act like that. We cannot waste any more time," Biden said.
"I laid out in detail a plan I thought we should be implementing a couple days ago and didn't get that much coverage, national coverage, but they tell me over, I think, 3.5 million people watched it online. And so, I'm learning how to deal with the vehicles that are available to get news out and get -- communicate with people," he said.
"Think about this. I am so -- this sounds corny. I'm so proud to be an American right now. Look at the way the nation is responding, ordinary people reach out. Look at the doctors and first responders. I was talking to the firefighters. These folks are risking their lives. They're not -- i talked about we had a discussion announcing saying we had to restore the soul of this country. Stop appealing to prejudice and the like. None of the folks, none of the docs are saying by the way, you're black, white, Chinese, you're this, you're that. They're just doing it," he said.
As another example, he talked about how volunteers are contacting cancer patients who are alone and frightened.
"I got a call from a guy who's a great, great friend. Used to work for me. Franny Parsons and his wife, has three beautiful young daughters. I think the oldest is now 11 and they got a call from their kindergarten teacher, saying, 'I will be driving through the neighborhood. Be in the driveway to wave and say hi to you and miss you. She spent three hours to drive through the neighborhoods.
"We have never, never, never failed to respond to a crisis as a people. i'm so darn proud and the poor people who have -- lost -- anyway -- it's just -- my heart goes out to them. "
"Tell me what you would do if you were president. Obviously in November, people will have to make a choice about who leads this country. What would you do that isn't being done?" Wallace asked.
"Well, if I were president now, in November, if I'm elected, God willing, I may inherit a different circumstance. Depends on how this is handled.
He talked about writing a piece he wrote for USAToday in January warning that a pandemic was on the way.
"We have to be better prepared. We should have been in a position, I called for a while ago. I would enforce the Defense Production Act. I would be surging equipment and personnel. I would be moving in a direction where we had the United States military which I called for several weeks ago building hospitals like finally happening in the National Guard helping in New York with, you know, at the Javitz Center. We have this capacity.
"Most of all, I would be protecting our docs, nurses and first responders because if we lose them we are in real, real trouble. We should be making those masks, moving on those ventilators. We can do that. Why doesn't he just act like a president?"
