Ebola coordinator Ron Klain listens as President Barack Obama speaks to the media about the government’s Ebola response in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

When President Donald Trump cut travel with China back on Jan. 31, the following day, Joe Biden suggested that Trump was practicing “hysterical xenophobia.”

On March 12, Biden also indicated he believes travel restrictions on Europe were not helpful, despite people like Dr. Anthony Fauci confirming that Trump’s actions in cutting travel with China and with Europe saved lives.

Two days ago, the Biden campaign claimed that Biden did support the China travel ban and tried to sell the idea that they always had supported it, despite the comments suggesting otherwise.

Nice that he finally came around two months late. But no one is quite buying it.

Let’s look at what Biden’s “coronavirus adviser,” Ron Klain, was saying in February. Klain doesn’t have a medical background, he’s a political operative and a lawyer who Barack Obama made his Ebola czar. On February 13, Klain said that we “don’t have a COVID-19 epidemic in the U.S but we are starting to see a fear epidemic.” He then praised NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s call to go to Chinatown, go shopping and “stand with your neighbors” showing a picture of the mayor in close quarters with several people eating dim sum.

On February 13, Joe Biden's top coronavirus advisor Ron Klain tweeted: "We don't have a coronavirus epidemic in the U.S." He implied "fear" was the bigger threat.

The Coronavirus Task Force created by President Trump began meeting two and a half weeks before this tweet. pic.twitter.com/dhF9SLm1R5

— Matt Wolking (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@MattWolking) April 5, 2020

On #COVIDー19: If you want to do something useful today, go to Chinatown — buy a meal, go shopping. The virus attacks humans, not people of any ethnicity/race. Fear is hurting Chinese-American owned businesses, baselessly. Let's fight the disease AND let's fight prejudice.

— Ronald Klain (@RonaldKlain) February 28, 2020

So, basically, the guy who is Joe Biden’s adviser on the virus, the guy criticizing the pace of the Trump response, the guy who got four Pinocchios from the WaPo for the claim that Trump had muzzled a scientist on the matter, he was encouraging people to go hang out in crowds in Chinatown even at the end of February. He was basically doing a “Nancy Pelosi.” Democrats showed that their concern in February was more about imaginary racism than being concerned about the virus being spread.

To call this racist was nonsense at the time, as it was people not wanting to go into crowds or places where there were likely to be people who might have come from an infected area, properly concerned about a spreading contagion, more so than folks like Klain. Nothing to do with race, same reason that I wouldn’t now take public transportation into NYC and I’m not “racist” against people from New York City. This shows how the virtue signaling was more important than common sense and public health.

So forgive me, if I don’t believe Joe’s sudden conversion to the benefit of the travel restrictions.

Meanwhile, a reminder, that Trump, the man they claimed was acting slowly, had already taken it much more seriously than they were taking it, by activating the CDC, organizing a task force, cutting the travel with China, and declaring a public health emergency, all in January.