It’s Monday, March 16. In today’s newsletter: The governor of Ohio recommended this evening that the state postpone Tuesday’s primary voting until June.

In the rest of today’s newsletter: The winner of last night’s presidential debate? The coronavirus. Plus: The sisters stuck in refugee limbo.

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« TODAY IN POLITICS »

(EVAN VUCCI / AP )

Remember the election?

The coronavirus pandemic changed everything, and in some ways, if you were watching last night’s debate, nothing at all about dynamics of the 2020 race.

Last night’s Democratic debate was unlike any of the many, many debates that have taken place over the course of the 2020 campaign. Just two candidates were on stage—Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders—and instead of the raucous audience and gauzy backdrops, it was a somber affair subdued by COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Regardless of the optics of the debate, the substance of the debate was eerily familiar, my colleague Russell Berman writes:

Biden is pitching himself as the candidate of stability, the tested veteran who can handle a crisis more ably than the Republicans’ erratic incumbent, President Donald Trump… [Sanders] used the crisis as an opportunity—perhaps his last one—to advocate for the revolutionary change that has defined his two campaigns for the presidency. The pandemic, he said, “exposes the dysfunctionality of the health-care system and how poorly prepared we are despite how much money we spend.”

The types of Americans at high risk in this raging outbreak look a whole lot like the two major presidential contenders (and incumbent): Biden, Bernie, and Trump.

Source: Theatlantic.com

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