Can Democrats Take the Offensive in the Pandemic Elections of 2020?

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

President, Barack, News, Politics, Wnyc, Obama, Lizza, Washington, Wickenden

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2020

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since the coronavirus became a public-health emergency in the United States, coverage of the 2020 Presidential election has been scarce. With little media attention and public events an impossibility, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have taken their campaigns online. Meanwhile, state election officials across the country are struggling to find the best time and means to hold their primaries. Eric Lach joins Dorothy Wickenden to discuss electoral reforms, such as voting by mail, and how the Democratic Party is trying to exploit President Trump’s bungling response to the pandemic.

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1:11.7	This is the political scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and guests about politics.
1:17.7	It's Friday, April 3rd. I'm Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of The New Yorker.
1:23.9	News coverage of the Democratic presidential race is scarce these days. Although Bernie Sanders shows no signs of dropping out in the next few months, Joe Biden will almost certainly be the Democratic nominee. With public assemblies ruled out and traditional media focused on the coronavirus pandemic, Biden has been experimenting with digital forms of
1:45.9	campaigning. This week, he launched a podcast, Here's the Deal, sponsored by his campaign.
1:53.4	His first guest was Ron Clayne, who served as his chief of staff in the White House, and in 2014
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2:03.5	Biden contrasted how he and Clayne handled Ebola to Trump's flailing response to COVID-19.
2:10.8	It's critical to the president not resort to fear-mongering, and also baseless downplaying or lying about the situation. The president needs to
2:21.3	be honest, needs to follow the science, needs to be transparent with the American people, and we need
2:28.2	information for people, not to scare them, but to get people to pull together, because that's how we're going to beat this.
	...

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