Biden’s presidency is perhaps linked to COVID-19 more than any other issue. Joe Biden repeatedly promised during the 2020 campaign that, if elected, he’d “shut down the virus.” According to him, Trump had botched the national response to COVID, and if he won the election, he’d right the ship, and COVID would go away.
“We’re eight months into this pandemic, and Donald Trump still doesn’t have a plan to get this virus under control. I do,” Biden promised on Oct. 15, 2020.
And what was that plan, exactly? Anyone? It’s not like Joe Biden didn’t take office with literally every possible advantage one could have. He did. Not only did we know a lot more about COVID on Jan. 20, 2021, than we did when the pandemic started, but two COVID vaccines had been approved for emergency use, and another came shortly after. Moreover, the Trump administration ordered at least 400 million vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna—enough vaccines to innoculate 77% of the United States population eligible to receive a shot—before Biden even took office.
The Biden administration also inherited a vaccine distribution plan from the Trump administration developed by Operation Warp Speed. The Biden administration made repeated claims that they inherited no plan from the Trump administration or that vaccine distribution accelerated on Biden’s watch, but these claims were false. The fact is that when things looked good, Biden shamelessly took credit for it, and when they looked bad, he blamed everyone else.
Related: 5 Things I’ll Actually Miss About the Pandemic
For example, cases were approaching pandemic lows in July, and Biden gave a speech celebrating our “independence from COVID-19.” But when cases and deaths returned in waves reaching their highest level on record, the White House blamed Republican governors. “If these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way,” Biden said. Then, a few short months later, Biden flip-flopped and declared, “There is no federal solution [to COVID]. This gets solved at a state level.”
Biden also blamed unvaccinated Americans and Donald Trump for his failure to shut down the virus. Yet despite all the advantages Biden had going in, on Dec. 27, 2021, more Americans had died from COVID on his watch than under Trump, and on Thursday, the total number of Americans who have died from COVID surpassed 1 million.
During their first presidential debate, Joe Biden insisted that the trajectory of the pandemic was the responsibility of the President of the United States. “It is what it is because you are who you are,” Biden told Trump regarding the COVID death toll. “A lot of people died and a lot more are going to die unless he gets a lot smarter, a lot quicker,” he insisted.
During their last presidential debate, roughly 200,000 Americans had died from COVID, and Joe Biden again pinned the blame on Donald Trump and said that “anyone responsible for that many deaths should not be President of America.” Nearly 600,000 Americans have died on Joe Biden’s watch. So by his own definition, he shouldn’t be president anymore.
