Vice President Mike Pence says Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden’s willingness to shut the economy down again because of the coronavirus pandemic demonstrates that Mr. Biden is out of touch with reality.
“You have President Trump who said that we’re not going to shut this economy down again and [to hear] Joe Biden actually talking about shutting down our country just shows how out of step he is with the progress that we’ve all made as a country,” Mr. Pence said in an interview that aired Tuesday on Fox News.
In his first interview after the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Biden told ABC News he would be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives and that he would follow the advice of scientists if they said a shutdown was needed.
“I would shut it down, I would listen to the scientists,” he said.
The U.S. has seen more than 5.7 million positive coronavirus cases and more than 177,000 deaths among its more than 300 million residents. The U.S. accounts for 4% of the world’s population and more than 20% of the world’s recorded cases and deaths.
However, new daily cases have been trending down recently and dipped below 40,000 this week after a high of more than 70,000 earlier this summer.
The pandemic prompted many states to impose strict lockdown measures earlier in the year that ended up ravaging the economy.
