Trump says Biden has been incompetent for 30 years and 'everything he ever did was bad'
President Donald Trump has described his Democratic challenger for 2020, former Vice President Joe Biden, as "incompetent".
“I believe the people of this country are smart and I don’t think that they will put a man in who’s incompetent,” Trump told Reuters journalist Steve Holland in an exclusive interview on Wednesday, April 29.
As the commander-in-chief continues to fight coronavirus pandemic in the United States, Biden's campaign has reportedly been gaining steam and he is ahead of Trump in a number of polls. In fact, a recent poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos had the former vice president at a 6 point lead over the president in the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
However, Trump was unfazed by the numbers and chose to focus on Biden's record of failure throughout his decades-long political career.
“I don’t mean incompetent because of a condition that he’s got now,” he said. “I mean he’s incompetent for 30 years. Everything he ever did was bad. His foreign policy was a disaster.”
Trump's remarks came after a number of reports cited anonymous sources claiming he "erupted" at campaign manager Brad Parscale over his polls dropping amid the crisis.
The president denied the reports outright on Twitter.
“Just told that Fake News CNN is falsely reporting that I was recently shouting at my campaign manager over made-up nonsense,” Trump wrote on his favorite social media platform. “Actually, he is doing a great job, I never shouted at him (been with me for years, including the 2016 win), & have no intention to do so. Just FAKE NEWS!”
That said, the president's chances in November now depend on how quickly he can get Americans back to work while safeguarding their health at the same time.
“We think we really have crossed a big boundary, and much better days are ahead,” Trump said at a White House event on April 30. “And I often say I see the light at the end of the tunnel, very strongly.”
The White House defended the president on Sunday, April 27, amid reports claiming he often stays in his bedroom till noon. Staffers clarified that Trump's schedule is so packed that he often has to skip lunch to get work done.
The statement came hours after the New York Times released a report portraying the president as someone who is isolated at home alone in the residential wing of the White House, spending significant hours watching television news channels to look out for any criticism of his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
But White House staffers refuted the NYT coverage and stated that the president remains very busy and it is not uncommon for him to make up to 60 calls per day, leaving him very little time to eat, which is often pushed late into the evening.
"There are times when lunch isn't even a thought," one official told the NY Post. "A lot of time there's either no time for lunch or there is 10 minutes for lunch." While the new White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows stated that the biggest concern he has right now is to ensure that Trump eats.
"I can tell you that the biggest concern I have as a new chief of staff is making sure he gets some time to get a quick bite to eat," Meadows said. "I can tell you that he will go back in and have a lunch just off the Oval Office and more times than not it is interrupted by several phone calls. If he gets more than 10 minutes of time in a given day I haven't seen in the five weeks I've been here."