From Elbow Bumps To Missing Audience, Coronavirus Pandemic Was Omnipresent At Debate Between Biden And Sanders

Stat: The Coronavirus Dominated Every Aspect Of The Democratic Debate
This is politics in a pandemic age: A presidential debate conducted in a sterile television studio, podiums separated by an awkward six feet, and a former vice president insisting that he no longer touched his face. (Seconds before, he had touched his face.) The debate cemented the weeks-old reality that the novel coronavirus pandemic has come to dominate every aspect of American politics. And it provided the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates — who greeted one another not with a handshake but with an elbow bump — a chance to articulate a presidential message in the face of inconsistent, often inaccurate messaging from the Trump administration. (Facher, 3/15)

The New York Times: Biden And Sanders Assume Fighting Stances, A Healthy 6 Feet Apart
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders began with an elbow tap. They stood behind lecterns six feet apart, in keeping with federal health guidelines. They rarely interrupted each other, initially, subsisting on mutually nonaggressive meditations on the menace of the coronavirus and how to corral it. “This is a national crisis,” Mr. Biden said early in Sunday’s debate. “I don’t want to get this into a back and forth in terms of our politics here.” (Flegenheimer and Ember, 3/15)

Kaiser Health News: And Then There Were Two: Biden, Sanders Debate With Coronavirus On Everyone’s Mind
In the midst of a global health crisis that has disrupted daily life and heightened anxieties for millions of Americans, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday urged people showing symptoms of the novel coronavirus to seek medical attention without fear of the cost. But the remaining major Democratic candidates offered two starkly different images of leadership in a time of crisis. Biden insisted that the federal government should help pay consumers’ bills in this unusual time, while Sanders focused in particular on how the coronavirus pandemic underscores the need to reform the health system. (Huetteman, 3/16)

The New York Times: How Are Biden And Sanders Protecting Themselves Against Coronavirus?
After more than 30 minutes of posing questions almost entirely about policy and decision-making related to coronavirus, Dana Bash, one of CNN’s moderators for Sunday’s Democratic debate, took a moment to make the topic deeply personal. What, she asked former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, were they doing to protect themselves from becoming infected? (Stevens, 3/15)

NBC News: Sanitizer. Skip The Handshake. No Audience. An Unusual Debate, Thanks To Coronavirus.
It was also almost certainly the first presidential debate in history to include the sentences "I'm using a lot of soap" (Sanders) and "I wash my hands God knows how many times a day" (Biden). (Seitz-Wald, 3/15)

Reuters: Three Takeaways From The Biden-Sanders Presidential Face-Off
Asked about the pandemic, Biden adopted a wartime posture, talking about immediate steps he would take as president and frequently referencing the White House Situation Room. He called for expanding hospital capacity, erecting temporary medical facilities and said unequivocally he would call on the U.S. military to help respond to the outbreak. "This is like we are being attacked from abroad," he said, also urging Sanders to put their ideological divide aside. (3/16)

The New York Times: Biden And Sanders Fight Over Policy And Records In Head-To-Head Debate
Mr. Sanders called the coronavirus crisis an “unprecedented moment in American history,” and said it drew attention to the fact that the country lacked “a system that is prepared to provide health care for all people.” In an early barb directed at Mr. Biden, Mr. Sanders said it would take a direct confrontation with the insurance and pharmaceutical industries to remedy the situation, including enacting his proposal for a “Medicare for all”-style system that he has championed. (Burns and Martin, 3/16)

The New York Times: The 2020 Campaign Is Over. The Coronavirus Campaign Just Started.
The candidates remained their essential selves — even at a virtual, epidemiology-minded distance — as if straying from their preferred political brands would amount to coronavirus surrender. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont delivered a stern address about our national ills in front of well-placed flags in a Vermont hotel on Friday, instead of a stern address about our national ills in front of well-placed Ohioans or Floridians, talking up “Medicare for all” and polling support for his health care vision. (Glegenheimer, 3/15)

Politico: The First Pandemic-Era Debate Distills The Choice Of Biden Vs. Bernie
News-wise, there were two important takeaways. The first is that Biden did nothing to raise any fresh doubts about his electability. He was coherent, in control of his arguments in a way that he isn’t always, and aggressive enough against Sanders to keep the Vermont senator, who is rightfully respected as an excellent debater, on defense frequently. Sanders’ best hope was some kind of asteroid-like event that caused Biden to buckle on stage. It didn’t happen. The second piece of news was Biden’s long-hinted at but now officially promised commitment to pick a female running mate. When Sanders was asked if he would commit to the same, he fell short of an ironclad promise. “In all likelihood, I will,” Sanders said. “To me, it's not just nominating a woman. It is making sure that we have a progressive woman.” (Lizza, 3/16)

The Washington Post: The Pandemic Is Changing Politics, But The Democratic Debate Mostly Sounded Like All The Others 
Anyone who thought that former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were ready to begin to make peace in their competition for the Democratic presidential nomination got a big surprise on Sunday night. Their debate quickly shifted from talk of pandemics to arguments over past records and future visions. For much of the two-hour debate, it seemed like business as usual, and yet both candidates and their campaigns know that everything is changing because of the spreading coronavirus. (Balz, 3/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Inside And Outside The Democratic Debate, A World Transformed
Sunday night’s often combative meeting had no audience, a reflection of the national shutdown of daily life in an attempt to slow the new coronavirus. Gone, too, were their other top competitors who have since fallen from the race. Instead the two men—one firmly tied to the party’s establishment, the other a self-described democratic socialist—took questions from three moderators in Washington. The traditional handshake at the start was replaced with an elbow bump. The rivals then took their posts at podiums six-feet apart, far enough to create social distancing from potential contamination. (McCormick, 3/15)

Reuters: Results Or Revolution? Biden, Sanders Present Dueling Visions While Blasting Trump's Coronavirus Response
After the debate, Sanders questioned the wisdom of holding the primaries after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sunday recommended events with gatherings of 50 or more people be postponed or canceled over the next eight weeks. "I would hope that governors listen to the public health experts," Sanders said in an interview with CNN. "I’m thinking about some of the elderly people who are sitting behind the desks, registering people, doing all that stuff. Does that make a lot of sense? Not sure that it does." (3/16)

NBC News: Biden Urges Voters To Cast Ballots In Tuesday Primaries As Coronavirus Concerns Mount
Former Vice President Joe Biden asked voters in a slew of Tuesday primary states to "please vote" as the coronavirus crisis has led to widespread closings and cancellations as officials try to corral the COVID-19 outbreak. Florida, Ohio, Illinois and Arizona are slated to hold primaries Tuesday. Already, Georgia and Louisiana have announced that they are pushing back their primaries from March and April to May and June. (Smith, 3/15)

The New York Times: How Coronavirus Has Affected The 2020 Primary Campaign Calendar
As the coronavirus outbreak upends the presidential campaign, we’re keeping tabs on postponements and cancellations in the election calendar and on major changes for voting. Two states — Louisiana and Georgia — have postponed their presidential primary elections. But the four states scheduled to vote on Tuesday — Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio — have all indicated they intend to hold their elections as planned. (Corasaniti and Saul, 3/16)

The New York Times: Louisiana Postpones April Primary As 4 More States Prepare To Vote On Tuesday
Louisiana will postpone its April 4 primary election for more than two months, officials announced on Friday, becoming the first state in the nation to adjust its elections in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The news comes as officials in the next four states scheduled to vote in the presidential primary — Ohio, Arizona, Florida and Illinois — have all indicated that they intend to hold their elections on Tuesday as planned, issuing a joint statement on Friday expressing confidence that ballots can be safely cast. (Corasasaniti and Mazzei, 3/13)

The New York Times: For Biden And Sanders, The Fight’s Not Personal
In October 2015, Senator Bernie Sanders was whisked into Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s residence at the Naval Observatory for a breakfast of yogurt parfaits and caffeinated campaign advice from a vice president who had just announced his (temporary) retirement from presidential politics. The meeting, according to aides, lasted longer than expected, nearly two hours, with Mr. Biden discoursing on campaign strategy and a range of policy issues, and expressing admiration for a Sanders political operation that was waging an unexpectedly tough fight against Hillary Clinton. (Thrush, 3/15)