Full interview: Biden discusses pandemic, campaigning, Supreme Court vacancy

In a one-on-one interview with WRAL News anchor/reporter Cullen Browder, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden contrasts his campaign effort in North Carolina with President Donald Trump's packed rallies and discusses Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the need for Democrats to turn the effort to fill a Supreme Court vacancy before the election into a campaign issue.
Posted 9/23/2020, 10:00:00 PM Updated 9/23/2020, 10:53:01 PM

Welcome to North Carolina

Good to be back

Let's start with National Breaking News in Louisville

One former officer indicted there but not for the death

of Briana Taylor

What's your reaction I have not

I just heard by being asked the question moment

I haven't seen any of the details so I'm reluctant

to respond

All I know is I've heard and heard on the

radio We're coming here that people acquire lining up to

protest and they're very upset

I don't know the detail I hope was a thorough

investigation

I'll comment when I know the detail but if there

are gonna be protest they should be peaceful

Protest

Briana Taylor's mom God lover has gone through hell and

she should not have to be in a situation where

I'm sure just like the other just like the other

folks have been victimized is does not want to see

burning looting anything like that

So I pray be peaceful and then be peaceful

Protest

Let's turn to Covad

19

Clearly campaigning in this pandemic is very difficult

It's complicated

Uh by tomorrow President Trump will have been here holding

rallies five times in the past month

This your first visit since of February

You're clearly uh concerned about social distancing

How do you compete And how do you show North

Carolina voters you care about this Well we have a

couple 1000 volunteers in the state

Number one

We have over 200 some page staff in and out

of state and contacting people on the telephones and virtually

constantly Um and uh and so I think we compete

responsibly

But we don't do is we don't large bringing about

large crowds where people are cheek to jowl there in

fact breathing in one of their coffee and one of

them and some people are going to get sick and

die

The number of cases is going up again

We're in a situation hours expected to be another 178,000

deaths between now and the end of this year

What's the president saying He says

I take no responsibility

It's not my fault

I have no responsibility

It's up to the governor's

Come on you said you're a commander in chief

Act like one take responsibility provide the PPE provide all

the things that are needed to keep people to be

able to open schools and safely make sure businesses are

given the protection they need to be able to set

up everything from from plastic covering be in front of

the cash register to people wearing masks and a whole

range of things

He's just not doing what needs to be done

He's being totally irresponsible

It's all about re election for him and it's irresponsible

In the wake of Justice Ginsburg's death you've been critical

of Republicans who have reversed course from 2016 where they

blocked Barack Obama's nominee

Uh now they want to push through a nominee

Will you go along with what some Democrats are proposing

to expand the court What I'm not going to do

I hope you'll understand is play the president's game

He wants to change the subject instead of about violating

constitutional principles by moving forward in the middle of an

election

Elections have already started

He wants us talking about whether or not we're gonna

expand the cord or we're gonna court pack

I'm not gonna get into that

What I am going to say is that I urged

the Democrats to go out and campaign like the devil

to make it clear what the president has done what

he's attempting to do and he's probably gonna be able

to do and make it clear that that's going to

cause women their health care because we're gonna take away

the affordable care act

They're gonna take great affordable care act once again we

will be able to charge more for the same procedure

Man is charged for pregnancy becomes a pre existing condition

Again people are gonna lose their healthcare particularly women

And that's why that's why we should be out making

this a campaign issue and make sure that we changed

it

We've seen a lot of negative ads here in North

Carolina many attacking you

The president clearly has attacked you calling you week that

you're unfit for the job

For those North Carolina voters who buy into that who

may question your whether you're physically mentally fit for this

job How do you respond right now Watch me Look

at him

I'm not the guy who by the way said the

problem with the civil with the Revolutionary War is we

didn't have enough airports

I'm not the guy who said that the attack that

took down the trade towers around 7 11

I'm not the guy who can't run up or down

the Platt the the ramp to get to the uh

to deliver a commencement speech in an academy

I'm not the guy who says Inject bleach in your

arm

I want to talk about you know And I do

know the difference between truth and lies between good and

bad between hope and fear

And so just watch me and make your decision

And quickly with the debates coming up are you prepared

How do you stack up Look I'm a on all

athletes and I'm used to dealing with bullies

The front is that rather than say I'm going to

do it again

Watch me

I've not been a bad debater and we'll see

What I'm gonna do is insist that we talk

About what The press With the president's failures

He's gonna want to make it personal

He's gonna want to get in the mosh pit

I'm going to talk about why I want to be

president

United States what I'm gonna do and where he's failed

Mr

Vice President

Thank you so much

Thank you

Appreciate it

Thanks