Biden Says Trump Should ‘Be Quiet’ on Coronavirus

(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden said President Donald Trump is spooking the stock market with inaccurate statements about the coronavirus.

In an interview with MSNBC set to air at 10 p.m. Monday, the former vice president said the market’s dramatic drop, which led trading to be halted briefly Monday morning, may be caused by traders realizing Trump’s generally rosy picture of the virus’ spread in the U.S. is inaccurate.

“It doesn’t mean the market wouldn’t still go down, but it wouldn’t collapse,” he said, according to excerpts released early. “Now, now who can say? But I think there’s no confidence in the president, in anything he says or does.”

Biden said the president is making things worse by focusing on “what he thinks is a political benefit for himself.”

“I wish he would just be quiet; I really mean it,” he said. “That’s an awful thing to say about a president, but I wish he’d be quiet, just let the experts speak and acknowledge whatever they suggest to him is what we should be doing.”

U.S. stocks plunged more than 5%, whipsawing back from losses that topped 7% and triggered a trading halt, as a full-blown price war over oil rattled financial markets already on edge over the spreading coronavirus.

Trump again minimized the coronavirus outbreak on Monday, tweeting that the seasonal flu kills many more Americans and “life & the economy go on.”

--With assistance from Claire Ballentine and Justin Sink.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ryan Teague Beckwith in Washington, D.C. at rbeckwith3@bloomberg.net;Jennifer Epstein in Grand Rapids, Michigan at jepstein32@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net

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