April 6, 2020
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Joey come lately: Biden now says he supports China travel ban to slow virus after he called it ‘reactionary,’ ‘xenophobic’ and ‘hysterical’
Former Vice President Joe
Biden now says he supports travel bans to contain the Chinese coronavirus after
all, after he had previously called the China travel ban issued by President
Donald Trump in late January “reactionary,” “hysterical,” “xenophobic,” and
“counterproductive.” Deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield told CNN on April
3 that Biden “supports travel bans that are guided by medical experts,
advocated by public health officials and backed by a full strategy,” adding,
“Science supported this ban, therefore he did too.” Was that before or after
looking at a poll that said Trump would do a better job dealing with this
crisis than Biden? Asking for the potentially hundreds of thousands of American
lives President Trump saved by acting decisively in the early days of this
pandemic at a time Biden was hysterically complaining about what he called
“reactionary” travel restrictions.
Video: Jobs report, Google tracking and the seed ban!
More people are unemployed
today than at any point in American history.
Video: Gov't closing economy costs up to 13 million jobs in weeks, likely millions more to follow
Taking the unemployment claims
reports plus the month jobs report, anywhere from 10 million to 13 million
Americans lost their jobs in less than a month amid government closures and
stay at home orders to win the war against the Chinese coronavirus.
Breitbart.com: Community banks lead effort to steer more than $4 billion to small businesses in one day
“Hundreds of community banks
across America are bypassing big banks on Wall Street to fuel the economic
rescue of the nation’s economy, steering more than $4 billion in loans to small
businesses across the country. A senior Treasury Department official confirmed
to Breitbart News on Friday afternoon that more than $4 billion has been given
out in loans to small businesses, mostly through smaller community banks, on
Friday alone.”
Joey come lately: Biden now says he supports China travel ban to slow virus after he called it ‘reactionary,’ ‘xenophobic’ and ‘hysterical’
By Robert Romano
Former Vice President Joe Biden now says he supports travel bans to contain the Chinese coronavirus after all, after he had previously called the China travel ban issued by President Donald Trump in late January “xenophobia.”
Deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield told CNN on April 3 that Biden “supports travel bans that are guided by medical experts, advocated by public health officials and backed by a full strategy,” adding, “Science supported this ban, therefore he did too.”
Was that before or after looking at a poll that said Trump would do a better job dealing with this crisis than Biden? Asking for the potentially hundreds of thousands of American lives President Trump saved by acting decisively in the early days of this pandemic at a time Biden was hysterically complaining about what he called “reactionary” travel restrictions.
And why wasn’t Biden the first one explaining his new position on this issue? Why tell us now? And why lie to the American people, to pretend he was in favor of it all along when he never supported it at the time? Why not just admit he was wrong?
Biden not only didn’t support the ban, he explicitly opposed it, repeatedly, saying it was unscientific, even though it turns out it ultimately was backed up by the science. Which, you don’t need a medical degree to understand. It’s just common sense. Travel restrictions are just another form of social distancing from those traveling from the hotspot at the time, which was China, to prevent the American people from coming into contact with others who had been exposed to the virus, just as not going to work if you’re sick might.
On Jan. 27, Biden had an oped published in USA Today, perhaps anticipating the upcoming travel ban and blasted President Trump’s calls in 2014 for travel restrictions during the Ebola outbreak as “reactionary”.
Biden wrote, “I remember how Trump sought to stoke fear and stigma during the 2014 Ebola epidemic. He called President Barack Obama a ‘dope’ and ‘incompetent’ and railed against the evidence-based response our administration put in place — which quelled the crisis and saved hundreds of thousands of lives — in favor of reactionary travel bans that would only have made things worse.”
On Jan. 31, President Trump issued the travel restrictions from China.
On Feb. 1, a day after the travel restrictions were put into place by, Biden said in Iowa, “We have, right now, a crisis with the coronavirus... This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia — hysterical xenophobia — and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.”
Biden added, repeating a line from his USA Today oped: “Diseases have no borders, they have no borders.”
On March 12, the very same day President Trump implemented further travel restrictions on Europe, leaving little doubt about his thoughts on the travel ban, Biden said in a speech, “Banning all travel from Europe or any other part of the world may slow it but as we’ve seen will not stop it. And travel restrictions based on favoritism and politics, rather than risk, will be counterproductive.”
That might’ve been the first crack in Biden’s façade, when he first acknowledged that travel restrictions might slow the virus down. Still, he didn’t support the policy. As it turns out, slowing the virus down was exactly what President Trump’s policy did, buying valuable time for the U.S. to put in place mitigation and race to bring desperately sought medical supplies to areas of the country now experiencing surges of new cases and hospitalizations.
The same day, Biden tweeted similarly, “A wall will not stop the coronavirus. Banning all travel from Europe — or any other part of the world — will not stop it…”
Is that so, Joe? Then why are the doctors telling those who are sick to stay inside? Why are patients at hospitals kept in separate rooms behind glass?
You know who wouldn’t stop the virus? Joe Biden, that’s who. We know Biden wouldn’t have done the travel ban in late January, because he told us every chance he got. He called it “reactionary,” “hysterical,” “xenophobic,” and “counterproductive.” All he has done up to this point is mock and deride President Trump’s efforts.
In fact, until Bedingfield told CNN that Biden now supported the travel restrictions, nobody in the world ever knew Biden had changed his position on the issue. Bedingfield said Biden's "reference to xenophobia was about Trump's long record of scapegoating others at a time when the virus was emerging from China," but not a reference to the travel ban. Uh-huh.
Finally, on April 5, Biden completed his about face on the issue on ABC News with George Stephanopoulos, who must have simply forgotten to roll the video tape of Biden blasting the travel ban. Biden said, “[Trump] indicated that I complimented him on dealing with China. Well you know 45 nations had already moved to keep—to block China’s personnel from being able to come to the United States before the President moved. So it’s about pace, it’s about the urgency and I don’t think there’s been enough of it.”
Perhaps ABC or CNN should bring Biden back to explain all his other statements away, or even better, to point out a single statement made in January or February supporting the travel restrictions. You know, when they might’ve still made a difference.
Ironically, Biden added, “I think it’s important to follow the science. Listen to the experts. Do what they tell you.”
But if President Trump had done that, there might have been no travel ban from China at all. We’d still be taking flights from there. At the time, Trump was acting against the academic models, according to Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli, who testified to the House Homeland Security Committee on March 11.
Cuccinelli stated, “Our understanding at the time we recommended it to the President and we had that discussion with him was that the academic model suggested not to do that. So, our advice was contrary to the then existing models as it was described in the task force. We made the recommendation anyway. The President was well aware of that sort of contrary indication and he adopted the recommendation and we universally now believe we tremendously benefitted from adopting those measures.”
It was Trump who proved whatever model said travel restrictions wouldn’t work wrong. Even Biden admitted, albeit a month and a half too late, that such a travel ban might slow the virus down.
That bought us time, time we would have never had if Biden had been president.
Leadership does not come in a text book. It’s not something you can look up. It requires instincts and an ability to take decisive action. In politics you don’t a second chance to act decisively. Trump acted decisively. Biden failed. Coming back in April and saying in hindsight it was a good idea is nice and all, but at best it makes Biden a Joey come lately on this issue. He should just admit he was wrong. To say he supported it all along is a monstrous lie.
On Feb. 1 when it mattered, Biden in Iowa said, “The American people need to have a president who they trust what he says about it [the virus].” That’s right, Joe. They really do.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
Video: Jobs report, Google tracking and the seed ban!
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2xLICrX9sk
Video: Gov't closing economy costs up to 13 million jobs in weeks, likely millions more to follow
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2xLICrX9sk
ALG Editor’s Note: In the following featured report from Breitbart’s Matthew Boyle, community banks across America kicked out $4 billion to small businesses on the first day of SBA emergency lending to save 30 million small businesses:
Community banks lead effort to steer more than $4 billion to small businesses in one day
By Matthew Boyle
Hundreds of community banks across America are bypassing big banks on Wall Street to fuel the economic rescue of the nation’s economy, steering more than $4 billion in loans to small businesses across the country.
A senior Treasury Department official confirmed to Breitbart News on Friday afternoon that more than $4 billion has been given out in loans to small businesses, mostly through smaller community banks, on Friday alone.
Friday is the first day of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a $350 billion program that is providing forgivable loans to small businesses nationwide during the coronavirus crisis gripping the country. The loans, which will be forgiven by the federal government should the businesses keep their payrolls intact, come as part of the broader $2.2 trillion economic rescue package known as the phase three bill that Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed last week.
The numbers earlier on Friday suggested that community banks would be leading the way in getting this capital into the hands of small businesses—the senior Treasury Department official told Breitbart News on Friday morning this was a “Main Street rescue” not a “Wall Street bailout”—and that trend has held throughout the end of the day Friday.
“Big love to community banks, who are getting it done!” the senior Treasury Department official said later on Friday.
As of 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday afternoon, a total of 978 banks nationwide had disbursed nearly 13,000 loans worth over $4 billion.
That same trend line was in place earlier on Friday, as in the morning around 11:00 a.m,. 245 banks had disbursed 1,926 loans worth more than $750 million. But now, throughout the day, it’s been clear that community and local and regional lenders have stepped up to fill the void left behind behind the receding bigger national Wall Street-connected banks—in other words, communities are helping their own while the elites are abandoning a big part of the small business community.
“When the unprecedented PPP loan program for America’s small businesses went live in the early morning hours of April 3, the community banks were the ones ready to go,” the senior Treasury Department official told Breitbart News on Friday morning. “Unlike the big banks that are coming online later in the day, the community banks were up and running and ready to serve their small businesses. America’s community banks are the real heroes.”
With the notable exception of Bank of America, for most of Friday other big lenders and bankers like JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Capital One, and Citigroup did not have capacity up and running to begin applications for loans through the PPP. The Chase website crashed earlier in the day, and the others did not even launch efforts to distribute the loans yet. That void those bigger banks have left has opened a vacuum into the which the community lenders and bankers have stepped to fill, which is a sea change in the power structure in the financial universe—something similar to what happened during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2008.
“This is the same dynamic we witnessed during the GFC,” Sheila Bair, the former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission (FDIC), told Breitbart News. “The smaller, better capitalized community and regional banks stepped up and expanded their lending. The big ones retreated.”
Alfredo Ortiz, the president of the Job Creators Network—a key small business group that has released a video explaining how the PPP program works—also told Breitbart News that what the president and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have structured here, allowing small businesses to work around big banks and instead work with their local community banks is “smart.”
“That’s what’s so smart about this relief package,” Ortiz said in an email. “The implementation by the Trump Treasury is bypassing government bureaucracy and letting small businesses deal with the people they trust. Community banks are playing a key role in this relief because they will play a huge role in the recovery. The goal now is to get as much of this cash into the hands of America’s job creators as fast as possible.”
Trump himself, during a meeting with energy executives at the White House on Friday, praised the small community banks nationwide—as well as Bank of America—for stepping up. He tweeted about them later on Friday as well:
Mnuchin, who structured this rollout after negotiating the deal’s passage through Congress, has been similarly active on social media promoting the first day of the program:
What’s more, this shift away from the powerful national banks on Wall Street to empowering local community banks nationwide could have major big-picture political ramifications as well. Trump, in other words, has helped the GOP become the party of “Main Street,” while the Democrats and the left are saddled with the baggage of Wall Street.
“This is the kind of thing Elizabeth Warren dreams of, but Trump is actually doing it,” a left-wing progressive populist who works with many top Democrats told Breitbart News.
