President Donald Trump brought his coronavirus infection upon himself by dismissing safety protocols, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Monday.
“Anybody who contracts the virus by essentially saying masks ‘don’t matter, social distancing doesn’t matter’ I think is responsible for what happens to them,” he said during a town hall in Miami hosted by NBC News.
Biden said that because Trump bucked safety precautions, his diagnosis didn’t come as a shock. “Quite frankly, I wasn’t surprised,” he said.
Trump left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday after checking in on Friday and declared victory over the virus. “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life,” he said in one tweet. Biden said he hoped the lesson from Trump’s experience wouldn’t be to downplay the threat of the virus.
“I hope no one walks away with the message that it’s not a problem. It’s a serious problem. It’s an international pandemic,” he said.
Biden said that at last week’s debate, he found it disconcerting to see members of Trump’s staff and family not wearing masks.
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