After the Chinese Communist Party threatened U.S. senators by name, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden has decided to echo a Chinese attack on President Donald Trump designed to cover for the Communist Party’s propaganda. Days after Biden’s notorious “You ain’t black” comment showing how the Democrat takes black voters for granted, Biden accused Trump of having “racialized” the coronavirus pandemic and stoking hatred against Asian-Americans by using the term “the Chinese virus.”
In an op-ed for Bloomberg, Biden and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) lamented the harassment Asian Americans have faced in the wake of the pandemic. The Democrats claimed that Asian Americans have “been blamed for COVID-19: yelled at by strangers in parking lots, refused service at stores and needlessly, cruelly scapegoated by the most powerful man on the planet, President Donald Trump, who has racialized the pandemic and stoked xenophobia every time he’s uttered the term ‘Chinese virus.'”
Biden and Duckworth accused the president of “stoking grievances and using the same politics of division that helped him get elected in the first place, this time by casting Asian Americans as the ‘other.’ As if they are a deviation from those who are ‘actually’ American. As if they don’t truly belong.”
“No insult, no insinuation — even when it comes from the president in the middle of the Rose Garden telling an Asian American reporter to ‘ask China’ — can change the fact that Asian Americans are just as American as anyone else lucky enough to be a daughter or a son of the United States,” the Democrats added.
Biden and Duckworth recalled the sad history of racism against Asian Americans and the many contributions Asian Americans have made. They used clunky phrases like “the Asian American and Pacific Islander community” and saccharine claims like “America is a roughly 3.8 million-square-mile community” to appear inclusive while accusing Trump of racism.
This language is but one small sign of how out-of-touch Biden’s entire op-ed is. America is not one “community” and Asian Americans (and Pacific Islanders) do not necessarily consider themselves all part of one “community.” Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Korean Americans, and Vietnamese Americans all have their own separate and proud heritages.
Tragically, the fact that the coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China, and spread thanks in part to the lies and malfeasance of the Chinese Communist Party, some Americans have harassed Asian Americans, in general, and Chinese Americans, in particular, who are not responsible for the coronavirus due to their heritage. Racist and xenophobic attacks against them are irrational and horrible. But you don’t need my opinion on it — just ask Donald Trump.
In March, the president made it clear that the spread of the coronavirus is not the fault of Asian Americans.
“It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American community in the United States, and all around the world,” he tweeted. “They are amazing people, and the spreading of the Virus is NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form. They are working closely with us to get rid of it. WE WILL PREVAIL TOGETHER!”
….is NOT their fault in any way, shape, or form. They are working closely with us to get rid of it. WE WILL PREVAIL TOGETHER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2020
Trump did not just tweet his support for Asian Americans — he also pledged to protect them in a press conference. He acknowledged that “great American citizens that happen to be of Asian heritage” have faced harassment. “I’m not going to let that happen.”
Huh. So where did Biden get the idea that Trump was saying Asian Americans “don’t truly belong”?
As with most things related to the coronavirus, this malicious smear traces back to the Chinese Communist Party.
From late February onward, Chinese sources began to share a conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was developed by the U.S. military and somehow planted in Wuhan. Chinese officials fueled this conspiracy theory in March. Trump responded by referring to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus.” He was pushing back against Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
Naturally, the CCP accused him of “racism,” and left-leaning media outlets and Democrats were all too glad to take up the call. By the way, the very same left-leaning journalists who rushed to condemn Trump as racist had referred to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan coronavirus” or the “Chinese coronavirus” weeks earlier.
As for Trump’s “Ask China” comment? He was directing the reporter to ask the Chinese Communist Party, not Asian Americans.
Biden’s and Duckworth’s desperate twisting is evident: Nowhere did Trump say that Asian Americans did not belong in the U.S. His supposed racist sins involve statements about China, not Chinese Americans or Asian Americans as a whole. Yes, he was noting that the pandemic originated outside the U.S. — because it did, and because the Chinese were attempting to blame the U.S. military for it.
Now, as lockdowns lift and the faux outrage over Trump’s statements about the “Chinese virus” has long abated, Biden is returning to fight yesterday’s battles.
Why? Likely in a desperate effort to deflect from criticism over his infamous comment saying that if someone cannot choose between Trump and Biden, “you ain’t black.” Yes, the white Joe Biden took it upon himself to define blackness, and he took black voters for granted. The scandal over this horrifically racist statement refuses to die — as radio host Charlamagne tha God dismissed Biden’s half-hearted apology and Biden attempted to blame Charlamagne for the comment.
How best to distract from this racism scandal? Why, accuse your opponent of racism, of course!
Only, Biden chose an extremely poor moment to echo the Chinese Communist Party’s attack on Trump. Two weeks back, the Chinese Communist Party threatened U.S. senators by name after American politicians dared to hold China accountable for its lies and malfeasance during the pandemic. Americans want China to pay for its bad behavior, and Biden has a horrible record of going soft on China while his son — the notorious Hunter Biden — raked in cash from Beijing.
Joe Biden chooses now to accuse Trump of racism? This surely won’t come back to bite him…
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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