YES!!!!

The Democratic presidential front-runner detailed Trump’s statements downplaying the severity of the crisis even as the pandemic spread across the globe.

It’s very good that he’s responding to this and he’s just getting started:

“I would like to get in the position and we're trying to work out so that the headquarters ... to be able to accommodate my directly answering questions in front of a press that's assigned to me,” he said. “We've hired a professional team to do that now. And excuse the expression that's a little above my pay grade to know how to do that.”

Now, he said, his house is being outfitted with equipment that would enable him to livestream events, have interactive tele-press conferences and broadcast interviews with network television.

Ever since his commanding victories Tuesday against Bernie Sanders in Florida, Illinois and Arizona, Biden has made no public appearances or statements. Instead, he said, he has been spending time privately talking to health officials, businesses, governors and members of Congress.

Immediately after the initial onset of the crisis, Biden also held his fire against the president out of concern it would look too political — an accusation leveled at him anyway by Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, who said that “Biden will take attention from real updates Americans should know just to score political points.”

Biden made his comments from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where he has been holed up for more than a week in adherence with Centers for Disease Control guidelines that urge people to practice social distancing.

“President Trump stop saying false things, will ya?” Biden said. “People are worried they are really frightened, when these things don't come through. He just exacerbates their concern. Stop saying false things you think make you sound like a hero and start putting the full weight of the federal government behind finding fast, safe and effective treatments.”

Biden gave a preview of what’s to come in a conference call with reporters Friday, where he listed a litany of false and misleading statements from Trump, who has been holding regular White House press conferences concerning coronavirus preparedness and response that have been broadcast live on all major networks.

Joe Biden is planning a regular shadow briefing on coronavirus to start as early as Monday to show how he would handle the crisis and address what he calls the lies and failures of President Trump.

I for one would love to see more of this come out of Biden’s campaign:

Everyone knows that we're facing a real crisis from the coronavirus. But do you know how we got here and what we need to do next? Ron Klain, former White House Ebola Response Coordinator, breaks it down for us: pic.twitter.com/XRkIw2EzM4

And Biden knows that he is going to have to work hard to win over young voters and he’s taking it seriously:

Voters under 30 made up 19 percent of the electorate in 2016 and in 2012, but Hillary Clinton’s margin of victory with this group was five points lower than Obama’s margin, according to exit polls.

The numbers were devastating in swing states that decided the election. In 2012, Wisconsin voters under 30 backed Obama by 23 points; in 2016, that group dipped as a share of the electorate and Clinton won them by a mere 3 points. In 2012, Pennsylvania voters under 30 supported Obama by 28 points; in 2016 they favored Clinton by 9 points.

An Economist/YouGov trial heat survey this month between Biden and President Donald Trump found Biden leading by 4 points overall, and winning the same 55 percent of voters under 30 that Clinton won in 2016. Eight percent were unsure who they’d vote for and another 8 percent said they would not vote, the poll said. Biden performed better than Clinton did with elderly voters.

“I think Biden needs to take this very seriously, both in terms of understanding that it’s a real possible problem for him but also a real opportunity," said Democratic pollster Andrew Baumann, who has studied the voting behavior of young people. "He's got some of the same challenges (that Clinton had) to make them understand that he’s not an enemy of what Bernie is trying to accomplish. He clearly isn’t, but he has some work to do convincing them of this.”

Baumann said young voters can be moved if he conveys the need for fundamental change, with policies to back it up like anti-corruption measures, getting money out of politics and standing up to oil companies and Wall Street banks. He said climate change is the No. 1 issue for many young people and that Biden could make it a larger focus of his campaign, perhaps even meet with Sunrise Movement activists to hear their concerns.

The Biden campaign sees three major differences with Clinton’s 2016 campaign, according to a source familiar with its thinking. The first is that Trump is president, unlike four years ago when many young people were complacent because they assumed he’d lose. The second is that Biden’s 2020 platform is more progressive than Clinton’s was in 2016. And the third is that Biden and Sanders like each other personally, which will make it easier to coalesce.

Biden has sought to address the problem by rolling out two new policy planks last weekend that would benefit young people: Tuition-free public colleges and universities, and allowing Americans to clear out student debt in bankruptcy. At the debate last Sunday, he promised a female vice president.

“Let me say, especially to the young voters who have been inspired by Senator Sanders: I hear you,” he said Tuesday in his victory speech. “I know what is at stake.”