Against the backdrop of the coronavirus crisis that has gripped the nation, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders faced off Sunday night without an audience in Washington, D.C. for a one-on-one debate. The early questions and closing remarks focused on the candidates’ plans to deal with the pandemic. Biden also committed to pick a woman as a running mate.
“This is bigger than any one of us. This calls for a national rallying of everybody together,” Biden said about coronavirus. He then pivoted to describe his plan to address the outbreak that he unveiled on Thursday.
Sanders, meanwhile, slammed Mr. Trump’s response to the outbreak, saying the first priority was to “shut this president up right now.” Sanders said that Mr. Trump was undermining scientists by promoting untrue information.
Both candidates committed to campaigning for the other if they didn’t win the nomination and said they would focus on defeating President Trump.
Biden, meanwhile, committed for the first time to picking a woman as a running mate, not to mention vowing to put the first black woman on the Supreme Court, while Sanders said “in all likelihood” he would also choose a woman running mate.
The candidates also tackled immigration, a huge issue in Arizona, one of the states set to vote on Tuesday. “We don’t need a wall,” Biden said. He vowed to freeze deportations, should he win the presidency and said only felons would be deported, which would be a dramatic reversal of the Trump administration’s approach.
In addition to Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio are scheduled to vote on Tuesday. Georgia, which had been scheduled to vote on March 24, has postponed its primary until May. Louisiana, which had been set to vote on April 24, has postponed its primary until June.
