In response to Vice President Joe Biden's criticism of the Trump administration's slow response to the coronavirus, White House aide Kellyanne Conway told Fox News' Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning that Biden was "in his bunker in Wilmington." She then quickly asserted, "We're not talking about politics here at the White House."

Conway elaborated on her statement later in the day.

From April 1 at the White House:

REPORTER: Kellyanne, you just said that "Why doesn't Vice President Biden call the White House and offer his assistance?" But we heard from President Trump saying that if he thought he had something to learn from past administrations, he'd pick up the phone and have those conversations. So, does this administration want the support of previous leadership —
KELLYANNE CONWAY: Let's talk about President, Vice President Biden, because I was specifically asked about him and his criticism of President Trump and the efforts that we're working on 24/7 around the clock here.
And you're all covering the press conferences, the press briefings, you're talking to our health professionals, our Cabinet members, the president, the vice president, senior staff, as you need to. So I find it to be petty and a tinge of partisanship and completely unhelpful to the American population to have a former vice president who was here for eight years, in his bunker in Wilmington, just lobbing criticisms, reading from prepared notes — and not that well — when we are looking at this decidedly non-politically.
I really have no time to talk about Biden and Bernie when we're talking about ventilators and vaccines, that's our focus now. So, I've seen some of his interviews — if I can get through them — painful to watch, I try to read them instead. But I haven't learned a single thing in those interviews that would help one American that we're not helping. So if he can say that – he's got a big platform, he's got a lot of fans out there who can't get enough of Joe Biden in the bunker in Delaware – so if he would actually say something in response to question or offer an insight we could take that up.
REPORTER: But when you say he's in his bunker, are you suggesting that Vice President Biden should be disregarding federal guidelines and be out there —
CONWAY: No, and you know I'm not. So let's not be silly. Let's not be silly. Let's not be silly about it.
REPORTER: What are you implying —
CONWAY: I'm not implying anything, in fact I'm not implying a single thing. I wonder what you're implying. But I'm not implying a single thing other than, he's out there, daily now, I don't know who gave him that advice, he's out there daily — maybe it's some of those [unintelligible] consultants — and he's saying things that are critical and often inaccurate and false instead of trying to be helpful.
If he wishes to be helpful he could be helpful, and I have to tell you, I'm not implying it I'm stating it pretty clearly: The critics and naysayers, whoever they are, have never seemed so small and so shrill and so irrelevant as they do right now when we have dozens and dozens of companies helping. We have Democratic female leaders on these governor's calls, thanking the president and vice president and saying, "We've had great collaboration and coordination with your task force, with FEMA and with the government, and here's the specific ask that we need now, could you help us?"
We've had person after person coming through, we've had bipartisan, bicameral legislation come to the president's desk several times now that he has signed immediately to give relief to individuals and industries that are in specific distress, which is most of America, if not all of America, and so I think that critics have never seemed so irrelevant and so small.
And if you're a former vice president and you have some type of visibility, you have a great idea, let's hear it. Don't save it for the debates in September and October, if he makes it there, if he's the nominee, as I see he's the front-runner.
But I really have no time for Bernie and Biden when we're talking about ventilators and vaccines here. So I'm not implying anything, he can stay in the bunker all he wants, he can cough into, sneeze into his hands all he wants, he can read from prepared notes all he wants, I'm yet to hear a single idea from Vice President Biden that would be helpful to the American people that was different from what we're doing. If he's got one he can call the switchboard, I'll put him right through.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.