Biden, Sanders face off in debate overshadowed by virus

WASHINGTON: Former vice president Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders will be squaring off for the first one-on-one debate of the Democratic presidential nominating contests on Sunday in the shadow of a coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least 59 people in the US so far.

Biden comes to the debate once again as a front-runner, buoyed by a string of recent victories in the Democratic president nominating contests. Sanders

will be looking to rescue and re-energise his campaign, battered from these defeats, some of them far worse than expected.

Sunday night will be the first time the two candidates will faceoff in a one-on-debate (Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is still in the race, but has not qualified for the debate). Sanders has proven himself the better debater, more forceful, lucid and good with oneliners. Biden has been prone to making mistakes and fumbling for answers.

But experts have pointed to the limited impact debates have had on the nominating contests. Senator Elizabeth Warren dominated some debates — including an epic takedown of billionaire Michael Bloomberg — but could not translate them into electoral victories, and quit the race.

The path forward for Sanders has been rapidly narrowing and the upcoming bunch of nominating contests in four states on Tuesday — Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio — hold not much good news for him. He has found little traction in Florida, for instance, the largest of them in terms of delegate count.