Joe Biden rips Trump record on coronavirus, environment

Ahead of President Trump's visit to Jupiter, Democratic nominee Joe Biden on Tuesday ripped the president predicting the public "won't hear" a plan to "overcome this pandemic or a strategy to put Floridians back to work."

"With more than 11,000 deaths, 600,000 cases, and 3.6 million workers across the state who have filed for unemployment benefits since March, it is clear that Floridians have been hurt by President Trump’s inability to contain the spread of COVID-19," Biden said in a statement. "But what we won’t hear from Donald Trump when he visits Florida today is a plan to overcome this pandemic or a strategy to put Floridians back to work."

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The White House said Saturday the focus of the president's afternoon visit to north Palm Beach County will be to tout his environmental record. He will meet with U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Stuart, during the visit.

In his statement, Biden added that as president he would listen to scientists and experts on how to address the pandemic and climate change.

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"When it comes to the coronavirus, it’s no surprise that President Trump has refused to listen to the experts and the scientists — just look at his environmental record," Biden said in the statement. "Trump has called the climate crisis a “hoax.” He has eliminated rules designed to keep our air and water clean. And, dangerously, he has opened up additional public lands, both on land and offshore, to the possibility of new oil and gas drilling, a deeply unpopular threat to Florida’s natural environment and tourism-based economy. I’ll promise you this: As President, I will work with experts to fight COVID-19, make historic investments to create millions of clean energy jobs, and get our economy back on track so it works for all Americans, not just Trump’s Mar-a-Lago crowd."

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On Saturday, Florida Democratic Party officials blasted Trump's proposed budget cuts to key federal agencies charged with environmental stewardship. They plan to do so again during a Tuesday morning virtual town hall.

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Their criticisms include:

• Democrats say Trump "is proposing drastic cuts to the agencies responsible for addressing the climate crisis, including  cutting the EPA’s budget by a quarter and its workforce by 11% — the lowest it’s been in 35 years."
• They also say Trump’s fiscal year 2021 proposed budget would be a disaster for efforts to address climate change by cutting the EPA's air and energy research programs by two-thirds.
• They also say it would reduce funding for the Montreal Protocol, "a global treaty that is phasing out hydrofluorocarbons, potent greenhouse gasses."
• Democrats say slashing the Army Corps of Engineers by $1.7 billion "would reduce the agency’s spending on flood control — an especially pertinent issue in Florida." 
• They also Trump's budget would gut "FEMA’s flood-mapping budget by more than 50% — from $263 million to $100 million." 
• And the administration's budget, they say, would also "eliminate funding for NASA’s Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory, a program that helps us better understand the climate crisis."