Trump again claims Biden wrote him apology that campaign denies

President Trump late Sunday claimed for the second time that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden wrote him a letter of apology regarding Trump’s decision to ban travel from China amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

Trump again made the claim during a Fox News town hall. He had previously made a similar claim, which Biden’s campaign has reportedly denied, during a Fox News town hall in March. 

In defending his response to the pandemic, Trump on Sunday touted his decision to close travel from China and claimed the former vice president and other Democratic lawmakers called him “xenophobic” for his actions. 

“Long after I closed the country they called me a racist, xenophobic,” Trump said during the town hall. “Biden said, ‘he was xenophobic.’ Biden has now written a letter of apology because I did the right thing. I saved hundreds of thousands of lives.” 

Biden’s campaign, however, has previously denied that Biden wrote such a letter, Bloomberg reports. 

A spokesperson for the Biden campaign was not immediately available for comment. 

Biden’s campaign also came out in support of Trump’s decision to ban travel from China, despite Trump’s campaign accusing Biden of calling the ban xenophobic. 

“Joe Biden supports travel bans that are guided by medical experts, advocated by public health officials, and backed by a full strategy,” Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, told CNN in April. “Science supported this ban, therefore he did too.”

Biden never explicitly called Trump’s ban on travel from China xenophobic. During a campaign rally on Jan. 31 Biden said “this is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysterical xenophobia and fear mongering to lead the way instead of science.” 

The comments were made shortly after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced the travel ban.