The Biden government’s consideration of a travel ban due to the coronavirus pandemic is “hypocritical,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., On Thursday.
“The day after Donald Trump banned travel to China, Joe Biden said it was not the time for xenophobia and that sort of thing,” Rubio told Fox & Friends.
Rubio added: “And a month later, he really tweeted that banning travel anywhere didn’t work.”
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Rubio responded to the Miami Herald’s headline “White House looks at domestic travel restrictions as the COVID mutation emerges in Florida.”
“The Biden government is considering imposing restrictions on domestic travel, including in Florida, for fear that coronavirus mutations will threaten to reverse the pandemic’s difficult progress,” said the Herald.
In addition, Rubio criticized the Biden government for considering restricting travel between the country’s states.
“So now that they are considering real restrictions on Americans within the country, I think it is unconstitutional,” said Rubio. “I think it will be successfully challenged in court.”
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Last month, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said it was unfair to claim that President Biden described his predecessor’s travel ban related to the coronavirus as “xenophobic”, despite statements that indicated it was indeed your view of that policy.
“I don’t think it’s a very fair articulation,” she told Fox News’ Peter Doocy, who reiterated Biden’s use of the term “xenophobic”. Doocy’s comment came shortly after the White House announced a ban on South African travel coronavirus.
“The president made it clear that he felt that the ban on Muslims was xenophobic,” said Psaki. “He lifted the Muslim ban. He also supported measures, travel restrictions to keep the American people safe, to ensure that we are controlling the pandemic. This has been part of his policy, but he criticized the former president for having a policy that it was not more comprehensive than travel restrictions ”.
Sam Dorman of Fox News contributed to this report.