CLAIM: President Trump said Joe Biden (D) would “close down the whole country” again to combat the Chinese coronavirus.
VERDICT: True. Biden said last month that he would, indeed, shut the country down again if scientists recommended he do so.
“You got to open these states up. It’s not fair,” President Trump said during a discussion centering around the Chinese coronavirus. “You’re talking about — it’s almost like being in prison. ”
“And you look at what’s going with divorce, look at what’s going on with alcoholism and drugs. It’s a very, very sad thing. And he’ll close down the whole country. This guy will close down the whole country and destroy our country,” Trump continued, adding that the country is “coming back.”
“We don’t need somebody to come in and say let’s shut it down,” he added, gesturing toward the former vice president.
Trump’s claim, that Biden would shut down the economy again, is true. During an August interview with ABC News, Biden did not take the option off the table, stating that he would “be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives.”
“I would shut it down; I would listen to the scientists,” Biden told ABC’s World News Tonight anchor David Muir.
“I will be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus,” he continued. “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,” he added.
That same month, Biden called for a nationwide mask mandate.
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