Biden's G7 Speech Put the Coronavirus Epidemic in Human Terms by Using a Simple Public Speaking Method

Joe Biden, White House Portrait

During a major foreign policy speech in Cornwall, United Kingdom, President Joe Biden used a simple, never-fail method to present statistics. Liberal politicians often do a terrible job when they try to prove points by giving numbers. Biden did it right.

What Biden did was to emphasize the coronavirus epidemic’s losses by comparing the United States’ pandemic deaths against American wartime deaths:

“And tonight, I’m making a historic announcement regarding America’s leadership in the fight against COVID-19. America knows firsthand the tragedies of this pandemic. We’ve had — we’ve had more people die in the United States than anywhere in the world: nearly 600,000 of our fellow Americans — moms, dads, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandparents. More deaths from COVID-19 in the United States than from World War One, World War Two, the Vietnam War, and 9/11 combined — combined. We know the tragedy.” 

Why does this matter? Simple: poorly-presented statistics bore audiences to tears. People hear numbers and instantly tune out. (It’s often said that people have trouble understanding any number greater than five. I don’t believe that, but there’s no doubt that piles of statistics can numb people’s minds.)

When people hear numbers, they want to know what the numbers really mean. It’s been estimated that more than 900,000 Americans have died from this disease. But that raw number, horrifying though it should be, has little emotional impact. Presented plainly, it’s only a number like any other number. It’s all too easy for Fox News hosts and Republican politicians to shrug their shoulders and say, “so what?”

Coronavirus, CDC image

Seeking to avoid that response, Biden brought the statistic home by adding up the number of deaths from four wars. More people have died during the coronavirus epidemic than from all of these wars added together. Each war was a major tragedy, and each left countless thousands of bereaved families. If coronavirus is a war, it is the worst war in the last century of American history.

Any number of other comparisons might have also worked. Biden could have said that the coronavirus victims could have filled Ohio State University’s massive stadium six times over. Sports fans could visualize the crowds. Biden could have compared the number of deaths to the entire population of Jacksonville, Florida. Any of these comparisons would help people understand the tragedy’s size.

Biden’s comparison to wars, however, had more emotional impact. Most American families have either lost a loved one in war, or know someone who has. We can empathize with the heartbreak. We have seen war movies and documentaries in which human beings are mowed down like blades of grass. The war comparison made Biden’s position more persuasive. That’s why Biden instantly gave the statistic a human face: “moms, dads, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, grandparents.”

When Republican politicians speak, they often tell stories. Stories don’t always prove much, but a good one can move audiences to tears. Democrats, who tend to think functionally rather than emotionally, often pump piles of numbers out to their audiences. When they do that, however, they overlook how important it is to show the humanity behind their numbers. Using a simple public speaking technique, one found in any good speech textbook, Biden encouraged his audience to think about the pandemic in human terms.

Read: Start and End Speeches with a Story

Although the press rightly emphasized Biden’s announcement that the United States would give half a billion doses of coronavirus vaccine to Third World nations, we must never overlook the immediate importance of how a speaker conveys points. It’s critical to make points in a way that helps the audience understand why policies make a difference.


P.S. I need to say it again. Congress’ attempt to pass basic, obviously-needed legislation has once again stalled. The president’s Number One Power is neither his command of the armed forces nor his administrative control of the federal bureaucracy. No, his Number One Power comes from what Theodore Roosevelt called “the bully pulpit.” The President of the United States can bypass Congress and give speeches directly to the people. If he can sway more American voters toward his agenda, recalcitrant members of Congress, who are spineless almost by definition, will start doing their jobs. If Biden wants to pass his agenda, he needs to flood the airwaves with speeches.

My chapter in Before the Rhetorical Presidency, edited by my late graduate school classmate Marty Medhurst, shows how President William McKinley (a couple years before Teddy Roosevelt!) used the bully pulpit to sell a controversial international treaty. Available for sale, or to read in most large research libraries. For more about McKinley's successful speaking tours, see my paper "With No Blot or Stain;" click William D. Harpine's Publications above and scroll to the bottom.