President Trump asked Joe Biden (D) on Thursday why he failed to accomplish many of the proposals he now touts during the Obama-Biden administration, deeming the former vice president a “typical politician” who is “all talk and no action.”
During a portion of the debate focusing on race in American and Biden’s 1994 crime bill, the former vice president listed off the policy achievements he planned to make a reality as president of the United States. That included changing the way the criminal justice system deals with drug offenders.
“They should not be going to jail for a drug or an alcohol problem. They should be going into treatment. Treatment. That’s what we’ve been trying to do,” Biden said.
“That’s what I’m going to get done because they may– the American people have now seen that in fact, it was a mistake to pass those laws where they do the drug,” he added. “But they were not in the crime bill.”
Trump immediately questioned why Biden failed to already get it done, given his decades as a politician, including eight years of serving as vice president.
“But why didn’t he get it done? See, it’s all talk no action with these politicians. Why didn’t he get it? ‘That’s what I’m gonna do when I become president’. You were vice president, along with Obama as your president, your leader, for eight years,” Trump pointed out.
“Why didn’t you get it done? You had eight years to get it done? Now, you’re saying you’re gonna get it done because you’re all talk and no action, Joe,” he continued, adding, “You got nothing done.”
“38,000 prisoners were released from federal prison. We have— there were over 1000 people who were given clemency. We— in fact, we’re the ones that put in the legislation saying we could look at pattern of practice of the police departments and what they were doing, how they were conducting themselves,” Biden responded, claiming that they “began the process.”
“We lost an election. That’s why I’m running to win back that election and change his terrible policy,” the presidential hopeful added.
Trump repeated his question.
“I just ask one question: why didn’t you do it in the eight years, a short time ago? Why didn’t you do it? You just said, ‘I’m going to do that. I’m going to do this.’ You put tens of thousands of mostly Black young men in prison,” Trump said. “Now you’re saying you’re going to get— you’re going to undo that.”
“Why didn’t you get it done? You had eight years with Obama?” he asked. “You know why, Joe, because you’re all talk and no action.”
That was not the only time Trump branded his opponent as a typical “all talk and no action” politician during the debate. At one point, Biden continued to dodge questions regarding his alleged involvement in Hunter Biden’s lucrative foreign business dealings, particularly with China.
“This isn’t about me. There’s a reason why he’s bringing up all this malarkey. There’s a reason for it. He doesn’t want to talk about the substantive issues. It’s not about his family and my family. It’s about your family, and your family’s hurting badly,” he said.
Trump branded his response as a “typical political statement”:
“Let’s get off this China thing, and then he looks — the family, around the table, everything. Just a typical politician when I see that,” he said, reminding viewers, “I’m not a typical politician, that’s why I got elected.”
“Let’s get off the subject of China. Let’s talk around sitting around the table,” the president said. “Come on, Joe, you can do better.”