DNC Chair and former labor secretary Tom Perez released the following statement after 2.1 million more Americans filed for unemployment last week:

“One out of every four American workers has now filed for unemployment. 40 million people. Small businesses have shuttered, people have lost their savings, and 100,000 Americans have lost their lives. The fallout from Trump’s disastrous response to this pandemic is so severe that for the first time in decades, the president is refusing to even release updated economic projections for the coming months. Communities of color have been hit the hardest, as the unemployment rate for both African Americans and Hispanics nears 20%.

“It didn’t have to be this bad. These numbers are the result of an epic failure of leadership in the Oval Office. Donald Trump knew about this virus in January. He was urged to take action. And yet, he did virtually nothing to stop it. He worried it would hurt his reelection chances if he even acknowledged that people were getting sick. He even said the virus would “miraculously” go away by April. But he can no longer deny the sobering reality millions of Americans are facing: our country is entering an economic recession, and the current occupant of the White House is the most incompetent, inexperienced, and indecent president in modern history. The American people need real leadership to get us through this crisis. We need a president with compassion and experience, character and empathy, big ideas and bold action. We need Joe Biden.”