Biden's head-turning comments on Asians resurface amid former VP's attacks on Trump 'xenophobia'

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Republicans are highlighting Joe Biden's past head-turning comments concerning Asian Americans after the former vice president co-authored an op-ed this week accusing President Trump of "needlessly" and "cruelly" scapegoating foreigners during the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this year, the former vice president hit Trump for "xenophobia" within hours of his January ban on most travel from China -- a policy that Biden and outside observers have since acknowledged was the right call. In their new op-ed, published by NBC News, Biden and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., take a somewhat different approach.

Instead, the two Democrats all but accuse Trump of racism for telling CBS News' Weijia Jiang to "ask China" about rising coronavirus cases. CNN published an analysis piece calling that moment a "microaggression," although Trump has previously asked reporters of various ethnicities -- including CNN's own Jim Acosta -- to "ask China" for information at press conferences.

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The op-ed goes on to fault Trump for using the term "Chinese virus" and for "deflecting blame for his own failure to heed the warnings of experts to prepare for this crisis." Critics have called "Chinese virus" a racist term, although various networks -- again, including CNN -- had repeatedly referred to the coronavirus as the "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese coronavirus."

Trump has said he used the term "Chinese virus" to counteract Chinese claims that the U.S. military was responsible for the pandemic. And various experts, including Biden's coronavirus response team, had downplayed the coronavirus pandemic even as cases were increasingly reported in the United States.

Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden, with Jill Biden, departs after laying a wreath at the Delaware Memorial Bridge Veterans Memorial Park, Monday, May 25, 2020, in New Castle, Del. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

For the GOP, the op-ed was an opportunity to remind voters of Biden's own questionable remarks, as well as the president's policies affecting the Asian American community, to close out Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

“Joe Biden has disregarded and ridiculed the Asian Pacific American community while President Trump and Republicans continue to champion Asian Pacific Americans, build meaningful relationships, and honor their heritage, sacrifices, and accomplishments," Republican National Committee (RNC) Asian Pacific Americans (APA) media director Marina Tse told Fox News.

Biden publicly claimed during a campaign stop in 2019, for example, that "xenophobia" keeps Japanese women employed.

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“You cannot succeed as a country if you leave more than half of your brainpower on the sidelines,” Biden said in South Carolina. “Japan is in a position where traditionally women are as well-educated as men, but the tradition was, once they had a child, they were to drop out of the job market. ... There’s an entire move, because they’re xenophobic — because they don’t want to invite other people from outside their country to come in and make up the workforce — they have fewer workers than they have a need for workers. And so, what they’ve done is they’ve decided to encourage women to stay in the job market."