Joe Biden is outraging conservatives by saying he will prioritize economic aid to non-white and women-owned businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The moment: In a video message shared to Twitter Sunday by the president-elect’s transition team, Biden said his incoming administration’s “priority will be black, Latino, Asian and Native American-owned small-businesses, women-owned businesses.”
According to an economic impact report released by Yelp in September, nearly 100,000 American businesses permanently shuttered their doors between March and the end of August.
- “Our focus will be on small businesses on Main Street that aren’t wealthy and well-connected, that are facing real economic hardships through no fault of their own,” Biden said.
- The president-elect said his administration would “make a concerted effort to help small businesses in low-income communities, in big cities, small towns, rural communities that have faced systemic barriers to relief.”
- Citing December’s jobs report, Biden said “restaurants, bars and the hospitality industry have been slammed by the virus.”
“We’re going to direct relief to those businesses and others that have been so badly hit – hit the hardest,” he added.
The reaction: Twitter commenters on the right accused the president-elect of pushing identity politics and slammed him for injecting race and gender into the issue of pandemic relief.
- “This is racial discrimination. Joe Biden should be impeached already,” tweeted the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh on Sunday.
Context: Across the ideological spectrum, political observers have criticized a series of stimulus packages passed by Congress to aid Americans and businesses hurting from the economic impact of coronavirus lockdowns as insufficient.
- In recent weeks, both President Donald Trump and Biden have called on Congressional lawmakers to increase the amount of the $600 stimulus checks, which began to be distributed to Americans last week.
- “$600 is simply not enough when you have to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table. We need $2,000 stimulus checks,” Biden tweeted on Sunday.
