#Joe Biden calls Trump a liar as he copies his Made in America platform

Joe Biden made a rare stump speech in the battleground state of Michigan Wednesday where he planned to talk about job creation and domestic manufacturing, but first launched into an attack on President Trump over soon-to-be-published remarks he made to Bob Woodard about handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Surrounded by Ford trucks and an American flag, Biden coughed repeatedly throughout the brief speech, taking no questions afterward.

“He lied to the American people. He knowingly and willingly lied about the threat posed to the country for months… It was a life and death betrayal of the American people. Experts say if you acted just, just one week sooner. 36,000 people would have been saved.”

Biden continued, “You know his failure has not only cost lives, it sent our economy in a tailspin, it costs millions more in American livelihoods. This is a recession created by Donald Trump’s negligence. And he is unfit for this job as a consequence of it.”

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday defended Trump’s handling of the pandemic and said his efforts to avoid a panic were well-justified, citing disruptions to the food supply as Americans hoarded groceries.

“The president has never lied to the American public on COVID. The president was expressing calm and his actions reflect that,” McEnany said.

Biden did not take questions from reporters following his prepared remarks, which also proposed anti-outsourcing policies, seeking to rebut Trump’s charge that Biden is culpable for decades of outsourcing.

Biden, who voted for NAFTA and supported China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, said if he’s elected, he will impose a 10 percent penalty for offshoring jobs and will provide a separate 10 percent tax credit for companies that revitalize manufacturing facilities.

“Donald Trump makes a lot of promises. He promised that he alone could stop the offshoring of jobs,” Biden said.

“Nearly 20,000 auto manufacturing jobs have been lost in Michigan under Trump. Nearly 80,000 were created during the Obama-Biden administration,” he said. “I’ve got a long history. I’m not just talking about what I’m gonna do. But delivering results for Michiganders.”

Statistics on employment are impacted by factors such as the recovery from the Great Recession that began just before the Obama administration and by the current pandemic, which created widespread joblessness.

Biden said before the pandemic, “Trump was creating an average of 500,000 jobs, fewer per year than in the last three years when President Obama and I were in office” — a claim that belies the fact that the unemployment rate was at a low.

“Has Trump delivered on stopping companies from shipping jobs overseas? American jobs? We already know the answer. Of course not. The rate of offshoring by federal contractors has doubled under Trump,” Biden charged.

Biden argued Trump’s 2017 tax cut law, which lowered corporate tax rates, also helped businesses that outsource jobs.

Trump often publicly discourages outsourcing and in cases has personally intervened. In August, he fired the chairman of the federally owned Tennessee Valley Authority to force the cancelation of plans to outsource dozens of IT jobs.

Trump is seeking to use trade policy as a bludgeon against Biden in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which broke for him in 2016. Trump accused Biden of “economic treachery” during a Monday press conference.

“Because of Biden’s economic treachery was 60,000 shuttered American factories. I heard this morning that real number is probably 70,000,” Trump said. “70,000 shuttered American factories and he’s talking about how wonderful it is with China.”