National security rating #3: Make Americans safe from biothreats

The pandemic of 2020 makes defense against biothreats a third metric on the Center for Security Policy’s National Security Voter Guide.

The human and physical costs to every single American have been incalculable. Hostile foreign powers and terrorists have been studying he routes the pandemic took in spreading from its source and around the world, the means of its spread, public reaction to the threat, and the damage itself. Biothreats are a problem unlikely to go away for a long time.

In the case of any biothreat or other mass destruction, good leadership requires blame to be fixed squarely on the perpetrator. Placing blame is not deflection of presidential responsibility. Placing blame is to ascertain the party that allowed the biothreat to spread out of control, in order to get to the source of the disaster and demand full cooperation in mitigating and eliminating the spread. As a matter of national security, placing blame is important to develop countermeasures and deterrents to ensure that such a disaster never happens again. Placing blame is also vital to determine who must pay for the American people’s pain, suffering, and economic hardships after the fact, as well as reparations.

Joe Biden. Biden condemned President Trump’s January travel restrictions on China: “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia, hysterical xenophobia, to uh, and fear mongering,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the China travel restrictions ‘outrageous, un-American,’ a threat to ‘our security, our values, and the rule of law,’ ‘callous,’ ‘cruel,’ ‘dangerous,’ ‘bigoted,’ hateful, and more.

Biden publicly maintained a globalist Obama-style approach, treating all countries as equals and not looking out for US interests first. Biden and his allies refused to blame the Chinese Communist Party. Instead he blamed Trump personally, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi politicizing the disease the “Trump Virus.”

Donald Trump. President Trump was in office at the time of the pandemic, and it was clear that neither he nor any of his critics had the answers to avert the crisis. The Obama administration built on a Bush foundation in its National Strategy in Countering Biological Threats of 2009, but it was not strategic or whole-of-government in nature, and emphasized a globalist arms-control approach rather than an America First approach to protect U.S. citizens. The Trump Administration produced a more comprehensive National Biodefense Strategy in 2018.

When the pandemic hit, President Trump and his administration first tried to be charitable toward China and not make its national disaster a policy issue. When it became clear that the regime helped spread the pandemic, Trump placed blame squarely on the perpetrator: the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP has absolute control of the labs in Wuhan where the virus originated. The CCP covered up and allowed a local epidemic to become a global pandemic. The CCP continued to disinform the United States and the world about the nature of the plague. For a while, Trump even called the disease the “Chinese Virus,” in a manner consistent with decades of practice to label a new epidemic by its origin.

For protection and recovery, Trump settled quickly on leaving domestic power and policy to each state as each state governor saw fit under their individual circumstances, and to configure the federal government to support those states. He fast-tracked innovation and allowed for flexible and even experimental solutions. Biden recently reiterated a centralized government approach, saying he would decree a “mandate” that would force every American citizen to wear face masks regardless of circumstance.

Trump has developed an economic and global diplomatic strategy to isolate the Chinese regime and hold it morally, legally, and financially accountable for the pandemic. Biden has issued no criticism of the Chinese Communist Party at all.

Make Americans safe from biothreats verdict – Trump: Strong. Biden: Weak.