The Memo: Biden, Sanders hold unconventional debate amid coronavirus pandemic

When Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders began their campaigns for the presidency, they would never have expected to be answering questions about washing their hands.

But like so much else, that changed during the debate between the two men Sunday night.

The debate, hosted by CNN, was emblematic of the way in which the coronavirus crisis has altered the political world — and will continue to do so.

The crisis has affected the Democratic primary campaign in particular, solidifying the advantages that Biden had already built up with strong performances on Super Tuesday on March 3 and additional primaries in multiple states on March 10.

So far, it appears that Tuesday’s primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio will go ahead — despite skepticism from Sanders, who told CNN’s Anderson Cooper after the debate that it was “a very good question” as to whether this should happen.

Biden could deliver a knockout blow on Tuesday. He holds huge polling leads in all four states.

Sunday’s debate was unusual in every respect. It was moved to Washington from its original scheduled venue in Arizona. It was held in the absence of a live audience. And the candidates themselves were positioned at podiums six feet apart, in accordance with health guidelines.

The two septuagenarians touched elbows rather than shaking hands at the start of the debate. And then there was the question about the personal measures that each of them were taking.

“I’m using a lot of soap and hand sanitizers to make sure that I do not get the infection” said Sanders. 

For Biden: “I wash my hands God knows how many times a day with hot water and soap. I carry with me — as a matter of fact, I have it in my bag outside here — hand sanitizer. I don’t know how many times a day I use that.”

Beyond the specifics of personal hygiene routines, however, the debate highlighted the two candidate’s very different approaches to governing.

For Sanders, the crisis was a window into how radically the U.S. health care system — and society more generally — needs to be changed. He talked about the shortfalls around testing, and the potential disincentives for lower-income people to seek appropriate medical treatment.

“Let’s be honest and understand that this coronavirus pandemic exposes the incredible weakness and dysfunctionality of our current health care system,” he said at one point.

Biden, much more of an incrementalist, has long been skeptical of Sanders’s desire for wide-ranging change. He made the same underlying argument about coronavirus that he makes about many things: that the public is more desirous of effective action, even if that action is relatively modest, than expansive promises that may never be fulfilled.

Biden talked up the idea of providing free care specifically pertaining to the coronavirus emergency — a crisis he explicitly compared with “a war” — but was quick to add: “It is paid for by the taxpayers generally. Generally. It has nothing to do with Bernie’s ‘Medicare for All.’”

The atmosphere of national crisis also made it more difficult for Sanders to attack Biden with the vigor that he otherwise might have done — a sizable factor, given that the Vermont progressive needs a game-changing moment if he is to halt Biden’s progress toward the nomination.

The debate became more fiery in its later stages, especially when Sanders went after Biden for his stances on Social Security, a controversial bankruptcy bill and the Iraq War. 

But Biden for the most part parried those — even though he appeared to distort the record, at least on the first two topics.

At other times, Biden sought to position himself above the fray.

“This is a national crisis. I don’t want to get this into a back and forth in terms of our politics here,” he said.

Perhaps the biggest news out of the debate was Biden’s unequivocal promise to select a woman as his vice presidential running mate if he wins the nomination. Sanders left himself a bit more wiggle room, saying that he “in all likelihood” would choose a woman.

Biden could well end the primary race on Tuesday.

His advantage is especially overwhelming in Florida, the largest of the four states to vote. Part of the reason lies with Sanders’s controversial views on the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro — a topic that surfaced yet again at the debate.

Sanders has praised Castro’s record on health care and literacy even as he has made clear his opposition to the authoritarian nature of the government in Havana. But that position finds no favor with Florida’s significant Cuban American population, most of whom are vehemently anti-Castro.

Biden’s polling lead in the Sunshine State stood at a massive 42 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average at noon on Monday.

There were some signs that Sanders is beginning to recognize that his race is run.

Tellingly, both Sanders and Biden pledged to support the other if he became the nominee. 

There was little of the personal rancor that was apparent when Sanders ran against eventual nominee Hillary Clinton four years ago.

“We are winning the ideological struggle,” Sanders told CNN’s Anderson Cooper after the debate. But the electoral struggle for his party’s nomination seems increasingly out of reach.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.