Biden Accuses Trump of Leading ‘K-Shaped Recovery’ Saying Only People at Top Are Benefiting

Biden stressed the unevenness of the recovery, particularly for people of color, and noted that lower-paid employees in workplaces like factories and stores are also at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, The Daily Mail reported.

"Those at the top are seeing things go up and those in the middle and below are seeing things go down and get worse," he said.

And Biden accused President Donald Trump of failing to feel the economic pain caused by the coronavirus pandemic, after data on Friday showed job growth slowing and a widening racial gap in unemployment rates.

His remarks came in a speech where he also launched a deeply personal attack on President Trump for his reported comments in The Atlantic, calling those who served "suckers" and "losers". Trump had denied making the comments.  

The former vice president, pushing a campaign message that he is more in touch with working Americans than his rival in the November 3 election, said the economic crisis has exacerbated divisions between the rich and the poor.

"The painful truth is, we just have a president who just doesn't see it, he doesn't feel it, he doesn't understand, he just doesn't care. He thinks if the stock market is up, then everything's fine," Biden said during a speech in his home base of Wilmington, Delaware.

"Economists are starting to call this recession a 'K-shaped' recession, which is a fancy phrase for what's wrong with everything about Trump's presidency," Biden said.

"The K means those at the top are seeing things go up. And those in the middle or below are seeing things go down and get worse," he added.

His description was in contrast to President Trump calling it a "v-shaped" recovery, meaning a quick bounce back after the economy tanked in March when businesses were shuttered because of the pandemic.  

"Trump has mismanaged the COVID crisis. And that's why it's a K-shaped pandemic," Biden said, adding, "The president has botched the COVID response, botched it badly."

The president has banked his re-election on a strong US economic recovery. The economy is one area where voters give Trump good marks in contrast to the low ones they give him on his response to the coronavirus and his handling of racial tensions. 

As both campaigns kick into high gear for perhaps one of the most consequential presidential races in recent US history, the Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls increased by 1.37 million jobs last month, fewer than in July.

Trump and his fellow Republicans highlighted the fall in the unemployment rate in August to 8.4% as a sign that the economy is improving after the shock from coronavirus lockdowns that have devastated small businesses from restaurants to gyms and hair salons.

Yet the president still looks set to head into the election with the economy crippled and serious questions hanging over his handling of the pandemic, which has killed more than 186,000 people in the United States.

Biden, who held a seven-percentage-point lead over Trump nationally in the Reuters/Ipsos poll this week, called on the president to bring congressional leaders together to restart stalled negotiations for another coronavirus economic relief package.

"Bottom line: Mr. President, do your job. Get off your golf course and out of your sand bunker. Call your leaders together and sit in the Oval Office. Make a deal," the Democrat said.

For most voters, the economy remains a major issue. US employment remains 11.5 million below its pre-pandemic level, and the jobless rate is 4.9 percentage points higher than it was in February.

Trump touted last month's falling unemployment rate as a sign of recovery.

"Great Jobs Numbers! he posted on Twitter, adding, "Unemployment Rate Falls To 8.4% (Wow, much better than expected!)"

While the unemployment rate fell last month, it was distorted by people misclassifying themselves as being "employed but absent from work". Without that error, the unemployment rate would have been about 9.1%, the Labor Department estimated.

While Monday's Labor Day holiday typically marks the beginning of a more intense phase of the White House race, both Biden and Trump got a head start in the past week with a flurry of activity following their back-to-back party conventions.

Biden traveled to Pittsburgh and Kenosha, Wisconsin, both in battleground states that help decide the election, to address the continuing and sometimes violent protests over racial injustice and police brutality.

Trump also visited Kenosha -- a flashpoint city where anti-racist demonstrators have clashed with Trump supporters after police shot a Black man in the back -- and made stops in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, another key state.

Both campaigns have launched new ad blitzes in those swing states, with Trump criticizing rioters and protesters.

Trump on Friday won the endorsement of the Fraternal Order of Police, the United States' largest police union with 355,000 members. Biden's campaign, meanwhile, announced endorsements from nearly 200 current and former law enforcement officials in a challenge to Trump's assertion that he is the candidate of "law and order".

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