State Rep. Jocasta Zamarripa and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore called Donald Trump a “dangerously discredited threat to our well-being and our economy” and said November’s election was a fight for voters’ lives due to the president’s inaction on COVID-19.
Their comments came on a call with reporters today.
“Throughout [the pandemic], the difference between what Joe Biden called for and what Donald Trump did at crucial inflection points reveals that only one of these candidates is a leader we can trust,” Zamarripa said.
Moore slammed the president on his insistence that the virus would disappear.
“That course of inaction, that lack of presidential leadership has gotten us to a point where by his own team’s estimate, Dr. Fauci says we’re on track to have 100,000 new cases a day,” she said.
Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman for Trump Victory, fired back, “Joe Biden thinks 120 million Americans have died from COVID-19. Biden’s lack of basic knowledge makes him unfit to serve any office, let alone President of the United States.”
Moore also decried the pandemic’s economic damage and said that had Biden been president, people’s financial situations would be less desperate.
“When the history books are written, people are going to call this a depression,” Moore said.
She went on to list several remedies a hypothetical President Biden would have undertaken to address the fallouts of COVID-19. These included stepped-up testing and PPE, restart packages for small businesses, a “safe for shoppers program” to ensure consumer safety, and increased assistance to childcare centers and school districts.
“When Joe Biden says we’re fighting for the soul of our country I think we oughta be clear: we’re fighting for our lives, our physical lives,” she said.
Zamarripa, a newly minted Milwaukee alder who represents the most Latino district in Wisconsin, highlighted the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on that demographic. Although Latinos are only 15 percent of Milwaukee, they have the highest positive test rate of any ethnic group. And while they’re only 7 percent of the state’s population, a third of the state’s overall positive tests are among Latinos.
“Infections are skyrocketing. What is Donald Trump doing? Outright ignoring this country, this crisis and leaving Americans to fight this virus on our own,” she said.