Biden: We Have Chance Now to Change ‘Structural Things’ on Voting, Environment

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Cuomo Primetime,” 2020 Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden stated that because of the coronavirus pandemic, “the public’s going to be so much more ready to deal with some of the structural change that has to take place” on issues such as the voting system, the environment, the economy, and disease prevention.

Biden responded to a question on the economy he might inherit if elected by saying, “I think it’s probably the biggest challenge in modern history, quite frankly. … We have an opportunity, Chris, to do so many things now to change some of the structural things that are wrong, some of the structural things we couldn’t get anybody’s attention on. In a sense, no pun intended, the Band-Aid’s been ripped off here. Everybody now understands that we have a voting system that is not transparent and clear and available for everyone. Everyone understands that the environment has impacted on this coronavirus and mounting evidence of that. Everyone understands that we have to lead the world. We can’t just sit back. Because no one else will. Everybody understands we have to, in fact, not only deal with another significant increase in funding for people who need the money just to keep their homes, just to keep their apartments, just to be able to keep things going, we then have to have a reconstructive part of this, just like the Recovery Act. And in that, we can do a lot to make things better across the board, including being better prepared, as we suggested to the president and his team back when they took over, when they became — they — the new administration came into office. We had CDC members in other countries to anticipate when viruses were going to occur. We should have had people in China…to see exactly what the Chinese were telling us, whether it was true. There are so many things we’ve learned here that I think the public’s going to be so much more ready to deal with some of the structural change that has to take place. But it’s going to be very, very difficult.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett