Statement by Vice President Joe Biden on the Trump Administration's Cover-Up of COVID-19 Cases Surging

Yesterday, there were more than 75,000 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the United States, the first time that our country has crossed that threshold. It was the 11th new daily record for cases in just the last month. How has the Trump administration chosen to respond to the explosion of cases we have seen?

By shutting down the CDC database monitoring these cases and trying to hide from the public the skyrocketing number of cases, the dwindling number of available hospital beds in many states, and the grim death toll that is approaching what would have recently been considered the worst case scenario. The public data will remain frozen in time on July 14th, while an official count of the toll of the virus remains hidden from view in a non-public database at a separate government agency overseen by the President's political appointees. He cannot hide the scope of his failure: private databases and media organizations will continue to report on the grim totals. What he is doing is keeping detailed data from the group of scientists who could make best use of it: the men and women at the Centers for Disease Control.

Donald Trump has waved the white flag and retreated in the face of the challenge of COVID-19. Now he is literally trying to hide. Trump is trying to sweep his failures under the rug and out of sight of the American people; what he doesn't seem to understand is that he cannot hide from the impact it has on the daily lives of nearly every American: the family mourning the loss of a loved one taken from them too soon, the essential worker risking their own health to keep our shelves stocked, and the millions of parents, caregivers, and educators looking ahead to the school year, worried about facing a choice between their children's health and their future that could have been prevented if the President took this crisis seriously.