Coronavirus and the 2020 elections: What candidates are saying

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As the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus rise and the stock market continues its brutal selloff this week, the Democratic presidential candidates have come down hard on the White House’s response to the growing epidemic. The 2020 candidates have been talking up a range of ideas to combat the coronavirus, or COVID-19, in recent days.

On Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced perhaps the most novel one.

Warren would defund President Trump’s beloved border wall to pay for the response. "Rather than use taxpayer dollars to pay for a monument to hate and division, my bill will help ensure that the federal government has the resources it needs to adequately respond to this emergency," she said in a statement put out by her Senate office. Her presidential campaign also has a plan. Don’t look for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to take up Warren’s bill anytime soon. But it’s an example of just one of the ways that the candidates are moving to be heard above the noise as public fears skyrocket just ahead of the critical Super Tuesday contests next week.

Mike Bloomberg – with his giant campaign war chest – has already cut an ad about the crisis that the campaign says will began airing nationwide Thursday.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, during a recent debate, said his response would mirror the response to the Ebola outbreak when he was Vice President. “I was part of making sure that pandemic did not get to the United States, saved millions of lives,” he said on Tuesday night. “I would be on the phone with China and making it clear, we are going to need to be in your country; you have to be open; you have to be clear; we have to know what's going on; we have to be there with you, and insist on it and insist, insist, insist.”

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Democrats – including most 2020 candidates – have noted that the Trump’s most recent budget had proposed cuts to the parts of the federal government that are now tasked with containing the virus. “We have to make sure the CDC, the NIH, our infectious departments, are fully funded,” Bernie Sanders said at Tuesday’s debate. Sanders also poked fun at Trump, calling him “this great scientist we have in the White House.”

The contrast these candidates are trying to draw with Trump’s attempts to downplay the crisis are clear. On Wednesday, the president said the U.S. was preparing for worst-case scenarios, but “I don’t think we will ever be anywhere near that.” “The threat to the American public remains low,” Trump said during the meandering press conference where, among other things, he joked about his own germaphobia.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar has her own plan for global pandemic prevention but took a slightly different tack during Tuesday’s debate.

“I want to take this out of politics right now,” she said. “I'm not going to give my website right now. I'm going to give the CDC's website, which is cdc.gov, so that people keep checking in and they follow the rules and they realize what they have to do if they feel sick and they call their health care provider.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-and-the-2020-elections-what-candidates-are-saying-172344052.html

[cannabis_flower]

1. How many of you have thought

That Trump might use this as an excuse to "postpone" the election?