7 takeaways from Joe Biden’s prime-time Covid-19 speech

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My takeaways from Biden’s speech, which lasted just over 20 minutes, are below. They are in no other order than the one in which I wrote them down while watching the speech.

1. Donald Trump dug the hole: Biden did not mention his predecessor by name, but especially in the first moments of his speech it was very clear that the current president is largely responsible for the country’s struggles against the coronavirus pandemic at the feet of the last president . “A year ago we were hit with a virus that ran into silence and spread uncontrollably, denials for days, weeks, then months,” Biden said at one point. given. “It has led to more deaths, more infections, more stress and more loneliness.” At another point, Biden pulled out his mask and said he was surprised it had been turned into some sort of political statement.

2. The return of the empathy: Biden made only one gesture in the speech that demonstrated the empathy with which he operates opposite the lives lost due to this pandemic. He pulled a map out of his jacket pocket – which he said he keeps with him wherever he goes – and read the exact, up-to-date number of Americans who have died from the coronavirus. (That number is over 527,000.) Yes, sure enough, Biden did it to dramatic effect. But it worked. And that has led to the idea that he is a leader who keeps those who have died from the pandemic close to his heart – literally. It also provided a not-so-subtle contrast to the overt politicization of the virus by Trump and those who succumbed to it.

3. At war with the virus: In his chosen language – and the comparisons he made – Biden clearly wanted to make Americans understand that we are at war with Covid-19. He said the country was “on a war footing”. He noted that Covid-19 has now killed more Americans than WWI, WWII and the Vietnam War combined. Even quoting “Farewell to Arms” – “many are strong in broken places” – Biden was invoking Ernest Hemingway’s World War I novel. The message was clear: this is not an enemy like the United States is used to fighting. But he is an enemy nonetheless, and the need for sacrifice and unity is as great as it was when America was fighting the Axis Powers.

4. Truth matters: Again, according to # 1, Trump was not mentioned by name in this speech, but he was all above. “We know what we need to do to beat this virus; tell the truth, follow the science, work together,” Biden said at one point, a direct rebuke to Trump’s rejection of the facts and science about the coronavirus at the during the 2020 campaign. “You owe nothing less than the truth,” Biden said at another point. And even while sounding a mostly optimistic note about a return to normalcy – more on that below – Biden was open and transparent that things could go wrong, that variants of the virus exist, and that if the practices appropriate mitigation measures were not being followed. we could be in another wave.

5. UNIT: At the most remarkable moment of the night, the President of the United States looked into the lens of the camera and said to the American people, “I need you.” Then he repeated it: “I need you.” (The Scott Wilson of the Washington Post called it “the most memorable and unusual call of prime-time presidential speeches.”) Repeatedly in the speech, Biden spoke of the power of “us” to defeat Covid-19. He spoke of the need to find a “common goal”. He said that “beating this virus and getting back to normal depends on national unity.” And that “I need every American to do their part”. The idea of ​​America coming together to do this was in stark contrast to the Trump presidency, in which the 45th president sought – on coronavirus to immigration to race – to highlight what divides us rather than our common humanity. . “We are in the United States of America and there is nothing we can do when we do it together,” Biden said in the closing moments of his speech.
6. Circle on July 4th: Biden said that by Independence Day, “there’s a good chance … you can get together and have a barbecue or a barbecue in your backyard.” Never hanging out in my backyard with a few friends on a possibly sweltering DC summer day sounded better! As NBC’s Craig Melvin noted: “Well, it looks like July 4th Independence Day takes on new meaning. It’s a marker now. That’s exactly it. July 4th is now the day – or around the day – when the country will start to return to a semblance of normalcy, at least according to Biden. Now he must either keep that pledge or have the date hanging around his neck as a political anchor – to Trump’s ridiculous promise that we would start to return to normal on Easter Sunday 2020.
7. “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing”: This line – spoken by Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) to Red (Morgan Freeman) in “The Shawshank Redemption” kept running through my head throughout Biden’s speech. (Maybe that’s because “Shawshank” was all the rage on Twitter around the same time Biden was speaking!) Biden used his speech, yes, to detail the losses we’ve suffered – singularly and collectively – of Covid-19. But he also pointed to a hopeful future that was within our grasp as long as we continued to work together. “There is hope and light and better days to come,” Biden said towards the end of his speech – and the image that came to mind was Red walking on this beach of Zihuatanejo as Andy works on his boat. What a beautiful moment.



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