Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday hit out at his opponent President Donald Trump over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, PTI reported. “He told Bob Woodward he didn’t want to panic the American public. Americans don’t panic. Trump panicked. Trump is the one who panicked,” Biden said at a campaign rally at Cincinnati, Ohio — a key battleground state.

The USA is the worst-hit nation by the coronavirus, with over 7.8 million cases and more than 214,000 deaths.

Reckless personal conduct since his diagnosis as well has been unconscionable,” Biden said.

“The longer Donald Trump is president the more reckless he gets. Dr Fauci, most respected person in this area in the country referred to the president’s announcement event for the Supreme Court in the Rose Garden as a super spreader event. Publicly criticising it. How is the president responding? He’s running a national ad here in Cincinnati and all across the country quoting Dr. Fauci out of context,” the former vice president said. 

Also read: Donald Trump accuses Joe Biden of ‘shipping jobs to China’

As a consequence of overwhelming lying, misleading and irresponsible action on the part of Trump, how many empty chairs are going to be around dinner table tonight because of their negligence? Biden asked.

He, however, said that there was a silver lining.

“Despite the crisis we face, we have an enormous opportunity like America has done unlike any other country after every crisis, we’ve always come out of the crisis stronger than we were before we went in,” Biden said.

“That’s uniqueness of who we are,” he added.

Also read: Behind in polls, Trump launches battleground state swing

The country needed leadership that seeks to deescalate tensions, to open the lines of communication and bring them back together, he said.

“We need to revive the spirit of bipartisanship in this country.”

“I know that sounds bizarre in light of where we are. A spirit of being able to work with one another. It’s time to unite America, and we’ll do that by choosing hope over fear, science over fiction, truth over lies, and unity over division. Democracy requires consensus. I’m running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president,” the presidential hopeful said.