U.S. President Donald Trump emphasized his stark contrast to his opponent Joe Biden in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic when he mocked Biden for saying he’ll “listen to scientists.” At a rally in Nevada on October 18th, Pres. Trump said, ““If you vote for Biden, he will surrender your jobs to China. He will surrender your future to the virus. He’s going to lockdown. This guy wants a lockdown. He’ll listen to the scientists. If I listen totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression instead of, we’re like a rocket ship, take a look at the numbers.”
Trump has a history of undermining the guidance of scientists.
As reported by Bethania Palma at Snopes
Trump appeared to be riffing on a comment made by Biden during an August 2020 interview with ABC News journalist David Muir. During the interview, Muir asked Biden how he would respond if he won the November 2020 election and was sworn in amid surging coronavirus cases, coupled with flu season.
Biden said, “I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus. That is the fundamental flaw of this administration’s thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing, and people employed, you have to fix the virus, you have to deal with the virus.”
Muir asked, “So if the scientists say shut it down?”
Biden answered, “I would shut it down, I would listen to the scientists.”
