Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden both called for urgent action on the coranavirus pandemic that’s the thrown the country into tumult in their Washington, D.C., debate on Sunday night, with Sanders blasting President Donald Trump for “blabbering with unfactual information.”
Sanders said “whether or not I’m president, we have to shut this president up, right now. Because he’s undermining the doctors and the scientists who are trying to help the American people.”
“It is unacceptable to be blabbering with unfactual information that is confusing the general public,” Sanders said.
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Biden focused on his plan to tackle the coronavirus crisis, saying he’d rely on scientists and work with the country’s international partners.
“This is a crisis. We’re at war with a virus,” Biden said. “In a war, you do whatever is needed to be done to take care of your people.”
Before the debate began, instead of the traditional handshake, the former vice president and the Vermont senator greeted each other on the debate stage with an elbow bump.
Sanders, 78, and Biden, 77, who are both in the higher risk for wore outcomes if infected with the virus, differentiated themselves from the president by laying out how they’ve changed their lifestyles to avoid getting sick. Biden said he’s “taking all the precautions.” “I do not shake hands any longer,” Biden said.
“I’m using a lot of soap and hand sanitizers,” Sanders said. Both noted they’ve halted traditional campaigning and rallies since the pandemic worsened.
Trump raised eyebrows by repeatedly shaking hands with business leaders and a Rose Garden event on Friday.
The pair were facing off in the first one-on-one debate of the Democratic presidential primary season, and the first since Trump declared the pandemic a national emergency.
The pandemic has stricken over 3,000 people nationwide and claimed over 60 deaths.
Earlier in the day, Trump took a shot at Biden, who’s leading Sanders in the delegate count and is now the favorite for the nomination. The president complained on Twitter about the Obama administration’s handling of the swine flu epidemic in 2009, writing “Biden in charge,” “very late response time” and exaggerating the number of people who died from the flu strain at the time.
Biden was not in charge of the response.
