Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden struggled early during the CNN presidential debate on Sunday night, suggesting that he did not want to argue on policy differences with Sanders, and struggled to accurately remember past epidemics.
While debating on the coronavirus, Biden said, “This is a national crisis, I don’t want to get this into a back and forth in terms of our politics.”
"I don't want to get this into a back and forth in terms of our politics." -Joe Biden #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/x7124dC27B
— Francis Brennan (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@FrancisBrennan) March 16, 2020
Biden also forgot the name of the Swine Flu, calling it the “coronavirus,” and calling the Ebola crisis “what happened in Africa.”
In the span of 10 seconds, Joe Biden:
– Mixes up the #coronavirus with the swine flu
– Mistakenly calls the H1N1 virus (swine flu) the "N1H1"
– Forgets the name of the Ebola virus, calling it "what happened in Africa"#DemDebate pic.twitter.com/O5cKNBPZSH
— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) March 16, 2020
The Daily Wire highlighted Biden’s leftist policy views in a profile piece last week:
Economy: Biden is best described as a Keynesian who believes in the purported economic benefits of large-scale government investments and deficit spending. Along with then-President Obama, Biden shepherded through a massive fiscal stimulus package in the duo’s first year in office, oversaw the passing of the regulation-heavy Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, dramatically expanded the national debt, and hiked income taxes on the wealthy. Biden has long been supportive of a greater federal role in infrastructure spending. On the issue of trade, Biden voted for NAFTA in 1993. Biden has opposed the privatization of Social Security.
Health Care: Along with Obama, Biden helped oversee the 2010 passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare. Obamacare radically reshaped the individual market for health insurance, infamously included a tax/mandate to purchase health insurance, and generally dramatically expanded the role of government in the regulation and provision of health care. There is likely no Obama/Biden agenda item that conservatives have more consistently opposed than Obamacare. Biden has never indicated any willingness to structurally reform fiscally ruinous health care-related entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. As part of his 2020 presidential nomination platform, Biden has claimed opposition to “Medicare for All.”
Immigration: Biden voted for the George W. Bush-era Secure Fence Act of 2006, but has also consistently supported amnesty policies throughout his career — including the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 and the failed “Gang of Eight” immigration bill in 2013. Biden served as vice president when Obama issued two major unilateral executive amnesties, DACA in 2012 and DAPA in 2014 — each of which has been fiercely opposed by conservatives and has been challenged in high-profile lawsuits.
Foreign Policy: Biden has cultivated a largely dovish foreign policy profile, although he did vote in favor of authorizing the Iraq War in 2003. As vice president, Biden was a leading proponent for and cheerleader of President Obama’s 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran — a deal which flushed the terror-supporting mullahs’ coffers with cash and did not place any restrictions whatsoever on Iran’s non-nuclear ballistic missile program. During his 2008 presidential campaign, Biden pushed hard for a solution to the Iraqi quagmire that divided the troubled nation into discrete Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish semi-autonomous sections. Although a self-described friend of Israel, Biden has often been harshly critical of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian-Arabs and allegedly once threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Israel. Along with Obama, Biden as vice president took steps to loosen the U.S.’s longstanding embargo on Cuba, although the U.S. received no tangible concessions from Cuba’s communist dictatorship before doing so.
Abortion: Biden described himself as “personally pro-life” while nonetheless believing that Roe v. Wade was correctly decided and that women have a constitutional right to abortion. For decades, Biden supported the Hyde Amendment — which prohibits federal funding of abortion — but flipped his position in 2019 to appease the hard-left Democratic activists who now comprise the base of the party.
Guns: Biden was a leading proponent and sponsor of the federal “assault weapons” ban, a subset of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Throughout his career, he has generally been supportive of curtailing Second Amendment rights. Biden has also supported mandating five-day waiting periods for gun purchases, as well as closing the alleged “gun show loophole.” Biden supports a ban on the undefinable sub-class of firearms referred to as so-called “assault weapons” — a line of thought that, if taken to its logical conclusion, could lead to the banning of all semi-automatic firearms in America.
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