Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are taking part in a very unusual Democratic debate: Because of the coronavirus crisis, there is no live studio audience at the debate, which was shifted from Phoenix to Washington DC. Before their first head-to-head matchup, the two candidates greeted each other by bumping elbows. In accordance with CDC guidelines, the podiums a the CNN-hosted debate are 6 feet apart. Moderators confirmed that the debate's main focus would be the COVID-19 pandemic. Some highlights:
- "This is bigger than any one of us." Biden, asked by CNN's Jake Tapper what he would tell Americans affected by the closure of schools and businesses, said "This is bigger than any one of us" and called for a "national rallying" to fight the virus, reports the Guardian, which notes that he coughed several times during his response.
- Medicare for All. Biden and Sanders clashed over whether Sanders' "Medicare for All" plan would have improved the situation, the AP reports. “One of the reasons that we are unprepared, and have been unprepared, is we don’t have a system. We’ve got thousands of private insurance plans," Sanders said. "With all due respect to 'Medicare for All,' you have a single-payer system in Italy,” Biden said. "It doesn't work there."