Former US vice president Joe Biden and US Senator Bernie Sanders sought in Sunday’s Democratic debate to cast themselves as best-positioned to lead the nation through a global pandemic, uniting in their criticism of US President Donald Trump’s response to COVID-19 but diverging in how they would confront the spiraling public health and economic crisis.
Biden pledged to deploy the US military to help with recovery efforts and warned that a federal financial bailout might be necessary to stabilize the economy.
Sanders leaned into the same domestic policy proposals that have dominated his campaign, arguing that the government-run health insurance system he has long championed would allow the US to respond faster to a health crisis.
Photo: Reuters
The coronavirus outbreak has rapidly reshaped nearly all aspects of US life, shuttering schools across the country and significantly curtailing travel. Virus fears have also halted campaign rallies and prompted some states to delay upcoming primaries because of warnings from public health officials against large gatherings.
“This is bigger than any one of us — this calls for a national rallying for one another,” Biden said.
The stakes in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination have shifted dramatically since Biden and Sanders last debated less than three weeks ago — as have the contours of the contest.
After a sluggish start to the primary season, Biden has surged to the front of the field, drawing overwhelming support from black voters and consolidating the backing of several more moderate rivals who have dropped out of the race.
Biden appeared determined throughout Sunday’s contest to keep his focus on the general election, making direct overtures to Sanders’ loyal supporters.
For Sanders, the reality is that his path to the nomination is rapidly shrinking, and he faces the prospect of more stinging defeats in the four states that vote today.
Still, he appeared determined to draw sharp contrasts with Biden throughout the debate, challenging him aggressively on the Iraq war and free-trade deals.
“I have taken on every special interest that’s out there,” he said. “That’s a very different record than Joe’s.”
Biden’s and Sanders’ prescriptions for addressing the coronavirus outbreak highlighted the contrasting approaches they are pledging to bring to the White House.
Biden, a centrist who backed the 2008 bailout of the financial industry during the recession, warned that another government-backed rescue plan might be needed in the coming months to shore up the economy.
Sanders, a fierce liberal critic of Wall Street, opposed the earlier bailout and said it would be a mistake to take a similar approach now; instead, he suggested a tax on the wealthiest Americans.
Sanders also repeatedly pushed questions about the coronavirus toward a now-familiar debate between him and Biden over healthcare.
He said that the troublesome shortages of coronavirus tests and anxiety over the preparedness of the nation’s healthcare system to deal with an impending increase in patients highlight why the US should move to the government-run “Medicare for All” system he has long championed.
“One of the reasons that we are unprepared, and have been unprepared, is we don’t have a system. We’ve got thousands of private insurance plans,” Sanders said. “That is not a system that is prepared to provide healthcare to all people in a good year, without the epidemic.”
Biden, who supports adding a public insurance option to the current system, argued that a pandemic was not a moment to attempt to push through an overhaul of the US health insurance system, a politically arduous endeavor.
“This is a crisis,” Biden said. “We’re at war with a virus. It has nothing to do with copays or anything.”
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