You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. It is hard not to marvel at the

strangeness of current American politics.

Just as Donald Trump appeared to have ridden out endless investigation and congressional impeachment,

his political fortunes have suffered a potentially much bigger blow, the spread of a global

pandemic which has already claimed more than 70,000 American lives,

and laid waste to swathes of the U.S. economy.

First and foremost, it is a public health challenge, of course, but politics is never far away.

The president's handling of the crisis, his response to the science, his eagerness to pile blame on China, and his fixation with reopening the economy are likely to feature heavily in the campaign leading up to November's presidential and congressional elections.

My guest is a rising star of the Democratic Party, Jamie Harrison, who's running for

the U.S. Senate in South Carolina. So, has COVID-19 changed America's political landscape?

Well, Jamie Harrison joins me on the line from South Carolina. Welcome to Hard Talk.

Thank you, Stephen. It's good to see you again.

Well, it's great to have you back on this show. I wonder, as a politician who is running for the

U.S. Senate in November, I just wonder whether COVID-19 and the pandemic feels like it's changed everything in U.S. politics right now.

Stephen, you're right. It has changed everything. There is now a new normal as a release,

even campaigning. We were one of the very first Senate campaigns that pulled down all of our

public events and went virtual.

Since the beginning of March, we have been doing virtual everything from town halls to even

our community service initiative.

We've been raising funds for community organizations online in order to support the

...