Biden Disrespects Wisconsin Ventilator Plant Workers, Dismisses Their Visit with Pence as 'Photo Op'
Like many other elected Democrats and media pundits, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been sniping at President Donald Trump from the sidelines regarding his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
And he’s kept it up even as Trump and the White House coronavirus task force have been working nonstop for the past couple months to address the nation’s most critical needs and manage the economic catastrophe the public health crisis has caused.
Now it appears Biden has set his sights on taking shots at Vice President Mike Pence, the task force’s leader, over a visit to a plant in Wisconsin that is manufacturing ventilator machines needed for the most severe COVID-19 cases.
In doing so, however, the former vice president actually ended up hitting the very same working-class laborers he claims to be fighting for by diminishing what they are doing and dismissing the whole event as nothing more than a “photo op.”
On Tuesday, Pence visited a General Electric plant in Madison, Wisconsin, that had shifted production to make the ventilator machines that were in such high demand, WUWM reported.
Undoubtedly, aside from highlighting the important job those workers were doing, Pence’s visit was also intended as something of a morale boost for the workers, who would be proud of the recognition they’d received for the risks they were taking to produce a machine that will help save people’s lives.
According to a statement released by Biden’s campaign, however, that isn’t how the former VP saw the planned visit to the manufacturing plant at all.
“This attempt to use Wisconsin as the backdrop to a political photo opportunity comes as the state is suffering a devastating loss of life to COVID-19, particularly in the African American community, hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin workers have filed for unemployment in recent weeks, and Republicans drive dangerous efforts to prematurely end social distancing efforts,” he said in the statement, according to the Washington Examiner.
Biden proceeded to label the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic “one of the most significant failures of governance of any administration in modern history,” and chastised the president for his supposed failure to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel the production of specific goods and services necessary to combat the virus.
“The Trump Administration routinely takes steps too late and by half measure. President Trump is now, belatedly, saying he will invoke the DPA to produce more testing swabs,” Biden continued. “For weeks, I have urged President Trump to adopt the policies in my COVID-19 plans and statements, including the recommendation to implement the DPA for urgently needed lab supplies like swabs.”
Here’s the deal, though: As usual, Biden doesn’t even know what he’s talking about, and his ignorance has now resulted in his insulting hardworking Americans who are attempting to fulfill a vital need.
A Wednesday news release from the Trump campaign in response to Biden’s statement noted that the president had already invoked the Defense Production Act numerous times to increase production of the highly desired ventilator machines.
“Biden’s dismissive characterization couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead of derision, these workers deserve gratitude — and that’s exactly why Vice President Pence was there,” the release read.
The campaign noted that Democrats like Biden had unnecessarily fueled the panic about a supposed ventilator shortage, but while Biden and others were “doing nothing but sniping from the sidelines, President Trump, Vice President Pence, and their coronavirus task force were finding solutions that saved American lives.”
“The machinists in Wisconsin were and are a big part of that. To see Biden insult their incredible progress for political reasons is a disgrace.”
In all actuality, whether they plant workers are supporters of the Trump administration or not, the visit from Pence was likely a once-in-a-lifetime event they will remember forever as a moment of pride when their hard work and sacrifice was recognized.
This isn’t the first time Biden has been dismissive of working-class laborers (recall his explicit argument with a plant worker in Michigan about gun control) and it likely won’t be the last, either.
In truth, he’s probably just jealous that he wasn’t able to go visit and herald the accomplishments of those workers before Pence did.
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