Bernie Sanders is utilizing the coronavirus pandemic to his advantage and against his Democratic presidential opponent Joe Biden.
Public opinion polls recently revealed that Sanders is currently trailing Biden significantly in the four large states holding primaries on Tuesday. As such, Sunday night’s primetime showdown is Sanders’ last opportunity to knock out his opponent on the debate stage.
Prior to the actual debate, Sanders released a statement expressing his excitement for a number of reasons.
“[I’m] looking forward to this debate for a number of reasons, not the least of which, it’s a two-person debate. I have a real problem, as I think many Americans do, with debates that turn into food fights. When you have seven, eight people up there or more yelling and screaming and trying to get the soundbite of the night, that the media will pick up on. I think in a two-hour debate with two people, we can explore some of the real issues facing this country,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sanders also made headlines this week after he wrote an op-ed piece for CNN about the coronavirus pandemic and the flaws in the healthcare and economic systems.
The presidential candidate encouraged Americans to be compassionate with each other since coronavirus can spread from person to person contact via droplets. This means that when one person gets sick, another person could get sick as well.
Sanders also said that the public’s response to be the pandemic should be based on the directives given by doctors, scientists, researchers and not politicians.
“In their direction, we must immediately increase the availability of coronavirus test kits and accelerate the processing of those tests. We must build out more intensive care units and obtain additional ventilators while doing whatever we can to support and protect medical personnel. And we must significantly improve our communication and collaboration with other countries to ensure that we are learning everything that we can about the novel coronavirus,” he said.