PRESIDENT Trump trolled Joe Biden for wanting a virtual Democratic National Convention conference amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden’s call for the virtual meeting came shortly after he called for the DNC conference to be pushed back from its original set dates in July due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Joe Biden wanted the date for the Democratic National Convention moved to a later time period. Now he wants a “Virtual” Convention, one where he doesn’t have to show up,” Trump tweeted on Monday.
“Gee, I wonder why?” he added.
Biden previously pushed for the DNC meeting to be moved back from its set dates on July 13 to 16 – and last week, the Democrats announced the convention would be moved to the week of August 17.
The former VP told ABC’s This week that Democrats “may have to do a virtual convention.”
“I think we should be thinking about that right now,” he told ABC on Sunday.
“We may not be able to put 10, 20, 30 thousand people in one place,” he added of the meeting, which is set to be the first national political party convention held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
At the convention, Democrats will officially announce a candidate for Presidency against Trump.
If self-declared “Democratic Socialist” Bernie Sanders stays in the race until then, the decision on a DNC candidate will be made just days before Republicans hold their own meeting from August 24 to 27.
In his Monday tweet, Trump also questioned why Biden didn’t call him after the former Vice President reportedly offered to call The President to give advice on handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Also, what ever happened to that phone call he told the Fake News he wanted to make to me?” he added.
Biden responded to Trump’s tweet on Monday, saying he hopes the convention will carry on as planned, but that it will depend on steps that are taken by the President.
“Mr. President, I hope we can gather in Milwaukee, but that is going to depend on you stepping up and doing what needs to be done to handle this pandemic,” Biden tweeted.
“I have laid out how you can do that,” he said, with a link to his site on leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Happy to discuss anytime,” Biden added.
When questioned if he would take Biden’s call during a White House press conference last week, the President said he “absolutely” would.
“I’d love to speak with him. I always found him to be a nice guy,” Trump said.
While Democrats have postponed their meeting by a month, Trump said at a coronavirus briefing at the White House on Sunday that there is “no contingency plan” to delay the GOP convention.
“We have no contingency plan,” the President told reporters of the RNC meeting set to take place in North Carolina.
“We’re having the convention at the end of August, and we think by the end of August, we’ll be in good shape,” he added.
Biden – who during his own time on the Obama administration saw both the 2009 swine flu pandemic and the 2014 Ebola outbreak – has been outspoken about disagreeing with Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
In late March, he told Americans not to listen to the President, and said his biggest concern about the virus was “misinformation.”
“Listen to the scientists. Listen to the doctors. Listen to what they have to say,” Biden urged on The View.
“And I would respectfully suggest that you should have Dr. Fauci on a lot more than the President, or anyone who’s not an expert like Fauci laying out exactly what’s going on,” Biden said, advising more speaking time be given to infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Trump’s trolling on Monday came as U.S. coronavirus cases soared past 347,000, with more than 10,000 deaths.
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