WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders blasted President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak during yesterday’s Democratic debate, and offered competing visions for how they would lead in a time of crisis that has upended the daily lives of Americans.
In their first one-on-one debate, the two Democratic contenders to face Trump in the November election clashed on the proper response to the pandemic and other pressing issues, with the centrist Biden arguing he would focus on results, while the progressive Sanders pushed for bigger, more fundamental changes.
Biden, who has become a clear front-runner in the Democratic race after a series of sweeping primary wins in the past two weeks, committed for the first time to pick a woman as his running mate if he is the Democratic nominee.
“If I’m elected president, my Cabinet, my administration, will look like the country, and I commit that I will in fact appoint and pick a woman as vice president,” Biden said, prompting Sanders to say he would “in all likelihood” pick a woman too.
The debate came two days before Tuesday’s nominating contests in the big states of Ohio, Illinois, Florida and Arizona, where another string of Biden victories would give him a nearly unassailable lead in delegates over Sanders.
The four states have said the primaries would go ahead as scheduled despite the rapidly spreading virus, which has shut down schools, restaurants and large gatherings across the country. Georgia and Louisiana have postponed later primaries by weeks.
With limited testing available, U.S. officials have recorded nearly 3,000 cases and 65 deaths in the outbreak, up from 58 on Saturday. Globally, more than 162,000 are infected and more than 6,000 have died.
In a debate overshadowed by the deepening health crisis, both candidates accused Trump of contributing to growing worries by spending weeks minimizing the threat before declaring a national emergency on Friday.
“The first thing we have to do, whether or not I am president, is to shut this president up right now,” Sanders said. “He is undermining the doctors and scientists who are trying to help the American people.”
But the two disagreed sharply over how they would handle the crisis as president, and bickered repeatedly over their records on a range of issues from climate change to healthcare, dampening hopes the debate would be a first step to party unity ahead of the Nov. 3 election against Trump.
“People are looking for results, not a revolution,” Biden said, taking a shot at Sanders’ promises to lead a political revolution to sweep in his anti-corporate economic agenda.
“We have problems we have to solve now. What’s a revolution going to do, disrupt everything in the meantime?”
Sanders, a democratic socialist senator from Vermont, said Biden’s ideas were not ambitious enough and touted his long-standing support for sweeping economic and social reforms.
In the past two days, Biden’s campaign courted the progressive supporters of Sanders and liberal Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who dropped her White House bid earlier this month but has not endorsed anyone.
Biden promised to back a Sanders plan to make public colleges tuition-free to families with incomes of less than $125,000 a year.
“I’m glad that Joe is on board. But what leadership is about is going forward when it’s not popular, when it’s an idea that you get criticized for,” Sanders said.
