Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden slammed the US President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as he visited Florida on Tuesday to gain the support of elderly American voters.
“The only senior that Donald Trump cares about is the senior Donald Trump,” Biden told a small gathering at a retirement community center in Pembroke Pines, north of Miami.
Biden recalled that Trump had once remarked that the virus — which has left more than 215,000 people dead in the US, many of them elderly — “infects virtually nobody.”
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“You are expendable, you are forgettable, you are virtually nobody. That’s how he sees this,” he said.
The 77-year-old former vice president wore his mask throughout his remarks.
Biden’s rally came a day after Trump held a campaign rally in the Sunshine State, his first since being hospitalized for COVID-19.
Unlike Biden’s small, socially distanced gatherings, thousands of supporters packed an airport tarmac for the president’s return to the campaign trail.
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Florida and its 29 votes in the Electoral College went to Trump in 2016, helping propel his upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Americans over the age of 65 favoured Trump over Clinton by a margin of 53% to 45%, according to the Pew Research Center and exit polls, however, the latest polls show a dramatic shift away from Trump among seniors this time around.