WATCH: Biden slams Trump’s Covid response in speech on anniversary of pandemic
Pollemix News – March 11, 2021
President Biden addressed the nation on the one-year anniversary of Coronavirus hitting the US. It was Biden’s first prime time speech since assuming the Presidency and he marked the grim milestone by urging a Covid-weary public to stay the course in defeating the pandemic.
“If we do all this, if we do our part, if we do this together by July Fourth there’s a good chance you and families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout or barbecue and celebrate Independence Day. That doesn’t mean large events, with lots of people together but it does mean small groups will be able to get together,” Biden said.
He added, “After this long hard year that will make this Independence Day something truly special where we not only mark our independence as a nation but we begin to mark our independence from this virus.”
The call out of July 04 as a milestone date was the first occasion that President Biden had referenced a potential end point to the crisis, perhaps signaling renewed confidence that the recent downturn in infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths are being viewed as more than a false dawn.
President Biden laid out his administration’s Covid response and pointed to the fact that they were on track to outstrip his original goal of 100 Million vaccines in 100 days as evidence that he was taking defeating the virus far more seriously than his predecessor.
Although he did not call out Trump by name he made several scathing references to the former President’s Covid response, accusing him of neglecting the pandemic and not moving quickly enough to curtail the pandemic in the early stages.
“A year ago we were hit with a virus that was met with silence. And spread unchecked. Denials for days, weeks than month. That lead to more deaths, more infection, more stress and more loneliness. Photos and videos in 2019 feel like they were taken in another era.”
Biden’s speech culminated with him simply imploring the public to “keep the faith” as America embarks on a second year under the cloud of the Coronavirus pandemic. It ends a week of positive press for the new President as his speech came on the same day he signed into law his landmark $1.9 Trillion Coronavirus relief bill which garnered 70% support from the public but no votes from Republican legislators.
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