President Donald Trump is responsible for contracting the coronavirus, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said late Monday night, adding it was “embarrassing for the nation” that he fell ill.
“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,” Biden said of Trump in an NBC town hall in Miami.
The comment was Biden’s most forthright condemnation of Trump since the president revealed early Friday morning he and first Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the virus.
Holding up a mask, he said, “I view wearing this mask, not so much protecting me, but as a patriotic responsibility.”
Biden later added that the fact the commander in chief contracted the virus was something for the country to feel embarrassed over.
“I will be very honest with you,” Biden said. “It was embarrassing for the nation.”
He also revealed he “wasn’t surprised” when Trump tested positive for the virus.
“For the last three months, three times a week, I’m on the telephone and on Zoom with some of the leading immunologists in the nation, and they go through everything that’s happening. And so the idea that Covid does not spread in proximity when you don’t have a mask on, when you’re not socially dancing, when there’s large groups of people, when you’re inside in particular and even when you’re outside, that’s not surprising,” Biden said.