Fact Check: Joe Biden Claims We Have Coronavirus Because of Trump

CLAIM: The coronavirus outbreak hit the U.S. because President Donald Trump “eliminated” President Barack Obama’s pandemic office.

VERDICT: FALSE.

Former vice president Joe Biden claimed on Twitter on Thursday that the U.S. is “paying the price” of coronavirus because President Trump “eliminated” an office that dealt with pandemics.

The Obama-Biden Administration set up the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense to prepare for future pandemics like COVID-19.

Donald Trump eliminated it — and now we're paying the price.

— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) March 19, 2020

Biden is wrong — very wrong. This falsehood almost deserves an entirely separate category of ignominy because of its ability to divide and frighten people in the middle of a crisis that requires social cooperation and trust.

The truth — as explained earlier this week in the Washington Post by former National Security Council official Tim Morrison — is that the office was combined with others in a reorganiztion that “left the biodefense staff unaffected.”

Breitbart News had already fact-checked similar inaccurate claims by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg when he made them in the Democrat Debate in South Carolina on Feb. 26. We did it again last week.

Biden has a particularly poor record on handling pandemics. In 2009, he caused panic during a swine flu outbreak by telling Americans not to take flights or ride subways. Today he barely remembers what disease we are fighting.

Not once has Biden offered President Trump his support in the fight against the coronavirus. Instead, he and his campaign are trying to score political points as Americans suffer. That is worse than “false.” It is disqualifying.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.