Debate offers Biden, Sanders a chance to bridge divide
WASHINGTON — After all the rancor of the Democratic presidential race, front-runner Joe Biden has a chance in Sunday’s debate to extend an olive branch to rival Bernie Sanders and his fervent liberal supporters in a bid for party unity before the general election fight.
Biden and Sanders will square off in what may be the final debate of the Democratic nominating contest. Biden leads Sanders in delegates after a string of primary victories, and next week’s nominating contests could put the former vice president on a nearly unstoppable path to the nomination.
The centrist Biden may now be in a position to try to find common ground with Sanders, a democratic socialist, a move that could help mend the fissure in the party between moderates and progressives, Democratic Party veterans say.
“Sunday’s debate could be an important step to heal and strengthen the party,” said
Hari Sevugan, recently a top aide to former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. “A measured, respectful conversation could go a long way.”
The winner of the Democratic primary contest will face Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election.
Biden is not prone to conflict with fellow Democrats. The question remains whether the pugnacious Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, would follow suit or keep trying to draw a clear contrast between the two candidates.
Some Democrats say lingering tensions between Sanders and rival Hillary Clinton in 2016 played a role in her upset loss to Trump.
After being routed by Biden in Michigan and other primaries on Tuesday, Sanders seemed to signal he was less interested in attacking Biden personally and more intent on pushing him to address issues such as universal healthcare coverage, college affordability, climate change and poverty.
The coronavirus pandemic will likely add a level of solemnity to the debate, which may also minimize conflict between the two, strategists said. The debate was moved to Washington from Arizona and will have no live audience due to concerns about the outbreak.
For Biden, the challenge may be figuring out how to thread the needle of expressing support for Sanders’ efforts without aligning himself with his policies.
Biden can say that “while they share the same goals, they differ on the prescription,” Sevugan said.
Biden’s team is under pressure from allies of Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, another former presidential candidate, to adopt policies popular with progressives such as a wealth tax, a stepped-up estate tax and an equal-pay plan, according to several strategists familiar with the conversations.
A wealth tax “one, is supported by both Senators Sanders and Warren and two, speaks to the fundamentals of who the Democratic Party should be making clear they fight for,” said a Democratic strategist who was close to Warren’s campaign.
A similar dynamic played out between Sanders and Clinton in the 2016 primary, when Sanders said he would not drop out even after it became clear she would be the nominee.