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Comment by gnusty_gnurc | Hacker News Reader

You're ignoring that his opposition immediately yelled racism when he was taking steps like shutting down flights, etc.

Nancy Pelosi was encouraging everyone to go to Chinatown when the virus was beginning to spread. In retrospect it's obvious how pretentious and unhelpful that was.

I'm just pointing out that politically the issue is tough given the stances people staked their identities on.

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I think you're conflating 2 different issues here. Or maybe I misunderstood you? If so sorry.

Trump did launch a Muslim ban back in early 2017. Scotus struck it down. People called it racist.

Trump later, separately, banned flights from China (with a bunch of exceptions, after most airlines already suspended them).

I don't think anyone mainstream called him racist for that did they? Nancy Pelosi criticised it for being too little and too late (since the virus was already spreading fast in the US). But did she call it racist?

Can you point me to who called Trump racist for the China travel ban?

> On Jan. 31, President Trump issued the travel restrictions from China. One day after the travel restrictions were put into place, Biden said in Iowa, “We have, right now, a crisis with the coronavirus… This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia – hysterical xenophobia – and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.”

> Biden added, repeating a line from his USA Today oped: “Diseases have no borders, they have no borders.”

> The same day, Biden Tweeted similarly, “A wall will not stop the coronavirus. Banning all travel from Europe — or any other part of the world — will not stop it…”

https://www.cerescourier.com/opinion/editorial/biden-flips-c...

All Biden's statements are suffused with reminders of the idiotic things Trump is associated with even when it serves no purpose in context of a pandemic. "Diseases have no borders"?

He was looking for opportunities to bring up campaign lines.

At the end of the day, the narrative switched completely where before established health knowledge recognized NPIs outside of social distancing as largely ineffective.

That's fair. I apologise for doubting you.

I'm disappointed in Biden, all he needed to say was "too little too late" but instead of being in front of things leading, he was still behind the curve scoring points. And he's the guy leading the US for the next 4 years.

Again, sorry I didn't believe you. I'll be more open next time!

I guess I see the issue as almost impossible to solve since they're all politicians unable to engage in reasonable discussion, especially when it was election season.

I want to engrave this on a plaque to pull out every time someone tries to equate both sides of any given conservative vs liberal argument. As though they are merely equally opposed and there is no fundamentally different character. It's just the color on the jersey.

I don't know the last time I ever saw a conservative do this. This is one of the fundamental differences right here.

And I apologize because, I bet your words were sincere, and that probably means you do not actually approve of me using them for point scoring.

But you are you and of course would not praise yourself, and I, being a 3rd party, am free to say "See that? That's how it's done."

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