Trump and Biden discuss coronavirus response

Former US Vice President and Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden spoke with President Trump on Monday about the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, two sources familiar with the conversation said, according to The Hill.

Speaking to reporters during a briefing at the White House, Trump said of the call, “We just had a very friendly conversation. Lasted probably 15 minutes. It was very nice.”

The call began taking shape last week after Biden offered to speak to the President about the US strategy for combating the coronavirus outbreak. Trump then said he was willing to take such a call from Biden, and the former Vice President’s aides began working to set up a conversation between the two political rivals.

The details of the call remain unclear but the fact that Biden and Trump spoke marks something of a shift for the two men who have spent years exchanging tough words with one another, long before Biden announced his presidential bid.

During the 2016 election campaign, Biden had harsh criticism for Trump, saying he had “no clue”. In another instance, Biden said that Trump “would’ve loved Stalin”.

Trump, for his part, has asserted that Biden is unfit to serve as president.

More recently, Biden has been sharply critical of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, saying the President was too slow to take action.

Speaking to reporters during a virtual briefing on Thursday, Biden said that he hoped Trump could “learn some lessons” from the Obama administration as the president seeks to combat the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

“We’ve been through this in a slightly different way in the past, and I hope they can learn some lessons from what we did right and maybe what we did wrong,” Biden said, noting that his team had been working to arrange the conversation with Trump.