WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Joe Biden spoke over the phone Monday afternoon about the coronavirus outbreak, according to two people familiar with the call.
The conversation was the culmination of a days-long effort by aides to get the two on the phone, after White House adviser Kellyanne Conway called on the former vice president to “offer some support” to Trump. Biden, the prospective Democratic presidential nominee, has in recent weeks released a series of suggestions and proposals for responding to the pandemic and has criticized the Trump administration for acting too slowly to stem the virus’ spread.
The two people familiar with the call spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation.
Biden said last week that he would “love” to speak to Trump and wanted to share with him lessons from the Obama administration on how to deal with the 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,” the former vice president said during a virtual press briefing last week.
