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The President is both the head of state and head of government of the United States, having the most power. A country like the United States, which is culturally diverse and one of the most influential nations of the world requires a dignified and understanding leader, who is open to both points of views. It is election time in the United States. The quadrennial presidential elections are scheduled for Tuesday, the third of November.
The world has now been in lockdown for about seven months, economies are in a recession and political polarization has reached its peak. In such a scenario, the United States had a surprising fall to the pandemic. There are around 220,000 thousand deaths and seven million cases which are on the rise. The President, Donald Trump, was himself infected with the virus a week ago, which proves that the virus is very much present.
The President was not ready to accept that several thousand Americans fell victim to a "Chinese Virus".
The candidate of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden criticised Trump and his inefficient measures to combat the deadly disease. Mr Biden said he was "glad" that the president seemed to be recovering well. But, he said, "I would hope that the president, having gone through what he went through... would communicate the right lesson to the American people. Masks matter." The statement was made after Mr Trump told Americans not to fear Covid-19.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama also criticised the president's response to the virus in a video where she urged people to vote for Mr Biden "like your lives depend on it".
"Seven months later, he [Mr Trump] still doesn't have a plan for this virus. Seven months later, he still won't wear a mask consistently and encourage others to do the same - even when those simple actions could save countless lives. Instead, he continues to gaslight the American people by acting like this pandemic is not a real threat," she said.
The president happens to be contagious and removed his mask on the balcony of the White House while posing for pictures recently. While he is no longer in hospital, his doctor has said he "may not entirely be out of the woods yet".
Biden has laid out a far more muscular federal approach than has President Trump, whose "failures of judgment" and "repeated rejection of science" the Democrat first pilloried in a Jan. 27 op-eds about the crisis. Biden has said that he would urge state and local leaders to implement mask mandates if they are still needed, create a panel on the model of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's War Production Board to boost testing, and layout detailed plans to distribute vaccines to 330 million people after they are greenlighted as safe and effective.
US President Donald Trump's rally in Henderson, Nevada, on 13 September contravened state health rules, which limit public gatherings to 50 people and require proper social distancing. Trump knew it, and later flaunted the fact that the state authorities failed to stop him. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the president has behaved the same way and refused to follow basic health guidelines at the White House, which is now at the centre of an ongoing outbreak. Quantifying Trump's responsibility for deaths and disease across the country is difficult, and other wealthy countries have struggled to contain the virus; the United Kingdom has experienced a similar number of deaths as the United States, after adjusting for population size. Many experts blame Trump for the country's failure to contain the outbreak, a charge also levelled by Olivia Troye, who was a member of the White House coronavirus task force. She said in September that the President repeatedly derailed efforts to contain the virus and save lives, focusing instead on his political campaign.
The coronavirus is a frightening disease, mutating and affecting people of different age groups, immunity, development etc. In a scenario like this, President Trump fails to reiterate the fact that the pandemic is deadly and needs adequate protection and safety. Joe Biden, on the other hand, recognises the destructive effects of the virus and choosing to not put it aside during his campaign, but make it one of his most important policies. Biden seems to have a better approach and plan to battle the virus, which Trump seems to lack even after eight months of the pandemic.
Written by Shreya Datta
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