Remember when Democrat Joe Biden called Trump's travel restrictions "xenophobic?" There's a video below this article in case you forgot.
Apparently Joe Biden had a change of heart, according to a new report.
President Donald Trump on Monday lifted coronavirus-related travel restrictions for much of Europe, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil, effective on January 26 -- a move that President-elect Joe Biden's administration has promised to block.
In an executive order issued Monday evening, Trump said he had been advised to lift restrictions on incoming travelers to the United States from the 26 European countries in the Schengen Zone, the UK, Ireland and Brazil but leave in place restrictions on travel from Iran and China.
"I agree with the Secretary that this action is the best way to continue protecting Americans from COVID-19 while enabling travel to resume safely," Trump wrote in the order, referring to Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.
Biden is set to take over the presidency on Wednesday and his incoming press secretary, Jen Psaki, said that his administration would not lift the restrictions.
"With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel," Psaki said on Twitter. "On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of COVID-19."
But wait, that can't be right. Joe Biden said the travel restrictions were xenophobic, as the National Review points out.
It appears that a President Biden would be no different. The day after the travel restrictions were put in place, Biden criticized Trump for his xenophobic response to the coronavirus crisis. It strains credulity to argue that the criticism had nothing to do with those travel restrictions, regardless of what Ducklo’s precious fact-checks may say.
WILMINGTON, DE - JANUARY 18: U.S. President-elect Joe Biden leaves The Queen theater following meetings on January 18, 2021 in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)