During a video press briefing today, Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Senator Cory Booker, and Biden for President Deputy Communications Director for Press Bill Russo discussed the first night of the Republican National Convention and how Trump’s mismanagement of the coronavirus wrecked our economy and contributed to a recession.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer:

“[President Obama and Vice President Biden] handed their successors an economy and a country in the midst of a historic recovery, with the longest streak of job growth in history, raising wages, and 16 million jobs created since the depths of the recession. Since that time, just three-and-a half years ago, Donald Trump has driven our economy into the ground. Even before the coronavirus struck, our job growth had slowed. The manufacturing sector was in a recession last year. Farmers were going bankrupt under Trump’s failed leadership. Now we have 16 million workers — more than one in ten — who are unemployed. We haven’t even regained half of the jobs lost during the pandemic. The economy has lost more than six million jobs since Trump took the wheel, including more than 250,000 factory jobs. And more than 100,000 small businesses have closed for good.

“Instead of helping small businesses and working families, Trump’s directing aid to big corporations and pushing big tax breaks for the wealthiest 1%. He doesn’t care about Michiganders or Americans who are struggling to make ends meet or put food on the table. And he’s not working half as hard as struggling families are.”

Senator Cory Booker:

“Working families know the president is not looking out for them. They want to know that their relief is on the way. And it is unfortunate that every step of the way Donald Trump has made this crisis worse. He ignored experts. He failed to implement a national testing strategy — instead he admitted he told his advisers to ‘slow the testing down.’ And he says the virus would miraculously disappear, that clearly has not been the case. And the consequences of his missteps have been devastating.”

“Tragically, not only did Trump’s mismanagement of COVID-19 tank the economy, it’s also clear that … he’s not acting as a leader should. 40 million Americans are at risk of being kicked out of their homes, but Trump was slow, dragged his feet, and let housing protections expire. 30 million Americans aren’t getting enough food to eat, but Trump slashed enhanced unemployment benefits in half for tens of millions of workers, and cut supplemental benefits to zero for more than a million low-wage workers. … This is not a president who has handled this crisis well. This is a president who has compounded the crisis and failed to step up for the American people.”

Biden for President Deputy Communications Director for Press Bill Russo:

“The American people didn’t need the dark, dystopian vision for our country that was on display last night at the Republican convention. We’re already living through that reality because of Donald Trump’s failures as president. We heard a lot last night about how ‘cancel culture’ is going to ruin your life, but very little about how Donald Trump’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis might end it, like it tragically has for almost 180,000 Americans. We heard about the great economy that Donald Trump inherited from Barack Obama and Joe Biden, but not a morsel of regret for how Trump’s failed leadership has squandered it, starting even before COVID hit. We heard a nearly incalculable number of lies about Joe Biden, but not a single convincing reason that a voter who is on the fence should cast their ballot to reelect Donald Trump. … All last night really accomplished was highlighting the smallness of the man himself.”