Joe Biden tells Stephen Colbert he is running for president because of Trump's 'enormous abuse of power'
Today's (May 21) episode of 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' is on its last week run at eight weeks and as host Colbert said, it was "amazing" to finish out with presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Things got political with some jokes and laughs, as Biden spoke of the negligence of the Trump administration during the Covid-19 pandemic and his plans for the first days of presidency. Colbert went straight to the point asking Biden if he was "going to beat this guy", referring to Trump, to which Biden replied quite confidently, "Yes" more than once. That bit even made it to the show's official Twitter page.
Biden said that Americans realize that this is an important election right now. He further said that the CDC had issued guidance on how to re-open the country and under what circumstances to do so, but the White House had put out the watered-down version of it. Biden said that President Trump is more worried about if his friends are okay and if the stock market was rising, "without paying attention to what scientists have." He pushed on the important fact that while residents of the White House were able to get tested, the vast majority aren't so fortunate. The experienced politician asked the Trump administration to tell Americans the truth. "They're tough, they can handle it," he said.
When asked what his plans were in the first 100 days of the presidency, Biden categorized his plans into three parts. One, he said, that the "we have to make an investment" and take $25 billion from Congress to scale up manufacturing and the capacity should the vaccine be produced soon. Second, he revealed that he would work with allies so the US had access to the vaccine, throwing shade at the fact that the country was missing from the virtual vaccine summit. "We should be with them [allies]," said Biden. Thirdly, he said he would focus on the distribution of the vaccine. Biden even shared what he considered a criterion for the VP role, and with stories of his times with Obama, he came up with three: "Not be intimidated in the Oval Office, tell the President the truth and make up for the President’s shortcomings."
Biden said that one of the biggest reasons he is running for president is because of "this president's enormous abuse of power," as he had explained how he would appoint Democrats and Replucians because there was not "partisan." He further spoke of the lack of action taken by the Trump administrations saying, "If the president acted earlier, it would have saved 37,000 lives. People are dying because of this negligence, it has to stop." "The interesting interview showed the human and political side of Biden, as he spoke of the death of his son, their promise, how the vetting process for the role of VP has not started and, and his experience working with former President Barack Obama. His outro was emotional as he said, "We Americans are always able to take crises and turn them into opportunities"
'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' airs on all the weekdays on CBS.