On Thursday night, former Vice President and leading Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ripped President Trump on Twitter for Trump’s actions in banning travel to the United States and Trump’s actions building a wall on the southern border, tweeting, “A wall will not stop the coronavirus. Banning all travel from Europe — or any other part of the world — will not stop it. This disease could impact every nation and any person on the planet – and we need a plan to combat it.”
A wall will not stop the coronavirus.
Banning all travel from Europe — or any other part of the world — will not stop it.
This disease could impact every nation and any person on the planet — and we need a plan to combat it.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 13, 2020
That fired up Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) who fired back a tweet demolishing Biden’s argument. Crenshaw wrote, “First, walls quite literally stop a virus. It’s kind of the whole point of a quarantine, for instance. Second, assuming you meant this metaphorically, health experts like Dr. Fauci and everyone else agree travel restrictions have vastly slowed the spread of the virus in the US.”
First, walls quite literally stop a virus. It’s kind of the whole point of a quarantine, for instance.
Second, assuming you meant this metaphorically, health experts like Dr. Fauci and everyone else agree travel restrictions have vastly slowed the spread of the virus in the US. https://t.co/4osiZ47t7D
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) March 13, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, is a member of Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force. As Fox News noted, earlier this week Fauci referenced Trump’s initial travel restriction targeting China, asserting:
Yes, there’s no question that if we had not done that in a timely way, there would have been many more travel-related cases from China. And as you know, the outbreak that we’re having here in the country, these cases originated from travel-related cases that came from China — and then we had the issue in Washington state and what we’re seeing now in other states. So, coming from outside within was the thing that started it. So, I think [Trump’s travel restriction against flights from China] saved us a lot of — a lot of concern and a lot of suffering, I think.
On Thursday afternoon Biden targeted President Trump after he had announced a ban on a significant amount of travel from Europe Wednesday night. Biden snapped, “The coronavirus does not have a political affiliation, but will infect Republicans, independents, and Democrats alike. And it will not discriminate based on national origin, race, gender, or zip code. It will touch people in positions of power, as well as the most vulnerable in our society. And it will not stop banning all travel from Europe or any other part of the world. It may slow it, but as we’ve seen, it will not stop it.”
Speaking to The Daily Wire last October, Crenshaw explained the importance of using social media as a tool to offer the American people cogent arguments in order to show them the facts in a given situation. He stated:
Simply just lay it out. Lay out the other side’s argument and then lay out why it’s wrong. That’s what people want to hear. What we often do instead is just repeat our own talking points, and it leaves people wondering, “Okay, but the other side said this. You didn’t address that.” Well, why don’t we just address it from the beginning? I’m always skeptical of just using talking points. I like to use the other side’s talking points, frankly, and then explain in layman’s terms why I disagree with those, and why they’re just fundamentally untrue. The purpose of using social media is to use it as a conversation with people. I think that’s what we try to do.