The White House imposed new travel restrictions to slow the spread of COVID-19 variants from India and other nations after Joe Biden labeled Donald Trump’s travel bans “xenophobic” and “racist.”
Restricting travel from India at the moment is what should be done. It has helped in the case of Trump’s travel bans of China and Europe. We don’t question the action. In fact, he should have done it weeks ago.
The policy doesn’t apply to American citizens, lawful permanent residents, or other people with exemptions. As with all international travelers, individuals who fit that criteria traveling from India must still test negative prior to leaving the country, quarantine if they have not been vaccinated, and test negative again upon reentering the US from India.
The analysis by WaPo fact-checker Glenn Kessler from January, in which he assessed the claim that Biden had called Trump’s ban on travel from China “xenophobic” when it was handed down on January 31 of last year, is a joke. He tries to wiggle Biden out of it. While Biden never described the ban specifically as “xenophobic,” in context it’s absolutely obvious that his references to Trump’s alleged xenophobia were an allusion to the ban.
On the day the ban was issued, he told an audience in Iowa, “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysterical xenophobia and fear-mongering to lead the way instead of science.”
The day the ban was issued, he wrote or someone wrote for him:
We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science — not Donald Trump’s record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 1, 2020
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