I’d given up on Bernie’s chances after the last debate, when Biden somehow held it together and looked decent to plenty of observers. But given all that’s happened since then, with Biden disappearing for a week and then looking even shakier once he reappeared, and with coronavirus cases and deaths skyrocketing across the country, as Trump criminally botches the response and the economy craters—things look different now. Many Americans are coming to see many things differently, while, by the delegate numbers, the race for the Democratic nomination remains wide open.
The world has changed in harrowing ways. But nearly every change has vindicated Bernie and his platform. This moment of crisis can be his moment. He should try to seize it, starting with something like the speech below.
This speech, like the others I’ve written, is intended to be a piece of effective rhetoric aimed at American voters, spinning and simplifying certain things, but also incorporating more nuance than today’s political rhetoric typically does. I explain this approach here. This speech also incorporates video, like House Dems did during impeachment, on the theory that some things are better shown than said, and videos can sometimes succeed where arguments fail.
Our country is in a crisis. Our world is in a crisis. And so many of you do not need to be told that. So many Americans are already out of work. So many Americans are already on lockdown. So many Americans are already sick. So many Americans are hurting, and scared, and suffering. So many Americans are already mourning loved ones they’ve lost.
To this very day we still don’t have nearly enough tests for the coronavirus. But the current data we have says that 164,000 Americans have tested positive for the virus, and over 3,000 have died from it. Hospitals are currently being overwhelmed. Doctors and nurses are working around the clock, and they are running out of hospital beds, and working without adequate protective gear. The bodies of people who’ve died are being put into refrigerated trucks because there is nowhere else to put them. Military hospital ships are in the harbors of New York and Los Angeles, and a field hospital has been set up in tents in Central Park.
But… we are still at the start of this thing. Because this awful virus spreads silently, before people feel sick. And once the effects really start to be felt, as they are now, you are already on a track that’s going to carry you into worse things before anything gets better. So the hell that Americans are now suffering in New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana—it is unfortunately going to get worse before it gets better, and going to visit many other cities and towns and rural areas.
So we desperately need to talk tonight about how we can weather this together. How we can do everything in our power to make it less awful. And how we can rebuild after it’s over, and prepare ourselves, defend ourselves, to keep it from happening again.So we need to talk about the virus. We need to talk about what’s happening today, and tomorrow, and this week, and next week. But we also need to talk about what’s going to happen after that, and whether it should be led by President Trump, or by my friend Joe Biden, or, instead, by us.
Bernie vs. Joe
Now, everybody knows that Joe is leading in the Democratic primaries. So far a bit more than half of the total delegates have been decided. We’re right around halftime in this game. It takes 1,991 delegates to win, and right now we’ve got 914 and Joe’s got 1,217. So the race is wide open by the numbers, but Joe is in the lead.
And let me start with what I would have said about that two or three weeks ago. First off, if Joe ends up being the nominee, I will absolutely support him and campaign for him. Just like if I’m the nominee, he will absolutely support me and campaign for me. Because both of us understand that Donald Trump is a unique danger to our country, and is completely unfit to be president, and must not be given four more years in the White House. Joe and I stand shoulder to shoulder on that.
And Joe is a friend of mine. But as you all know, Joe and I have very different policies, and very different records. Two yuge points are the Iraq War and the Wall Street Bailout, both of which Joe was for, and I was against. Another difference is our funding. Our campaign does not take any money from billionaires or large corporations, because that’s not who we’re working for now or who we’ll work for in the White House. We work for, and are funded by, the American people, through small individual donations.
Joe takes a different view. And he takes a lot of money, either directly or through Super PACs, from billionaires, and from large corporations. Including from credit card companies, and student loan companies, and pharmaceutical companies. These are the companies that, through donations like these, and through their lobbying, have far too much power in Washington, and far too much influence on our laws and our economy and our way of life. It is not an exaggeration to say that these donations and this lobbying are why 44 million Americans are buried under student loan debt. Which, by the way, cannot be escaped even in bankruptcy, because of a 2005 bill that Joe fought in favor of, fighting alongside Senate Republicans, and against me and most Democrats.
But maybe the biggest difference between Joe and me concerns healthcare. I favor Medicare for All. A single-payer healthcare system, like those in so many other countries. A system where healthcare is treated as a human right. A system where every American would have a card in their pocket that says Medicare on it, and would be able to take that card to any doctor, and pay absolutely nothing out of pocket.
Now, of course, of course, it still gets paid for somehow. It gets paid for through taxes. And there are two things to realize here. One is that we of course pay for healthcare right now, under our current system. But we pay twice as much as people in any other major country on earth. And Medicare for All would fix that. Switching to a sane, single-payer system that treats healthcare as a human right is not only morally right, but also fiscally right, economically right. So, I will admit that I don’t really understand our Republican friends who seem so much more concerned about economics than about human beings. But even if that’s where your heart is, even if that’s what your big concern is, look, this is still the better answer.
The other point is this. Our total healthcare costs as a county will go way, way down. But yes, some people’s taxes will go up. But for most people, this is a very simple equation. Think about all the money that you currently pay in premiums and copays and deductibles. And then imagine being handed all of that back, in a big pile of cash. Then imagine dividing that pile into two piles, getting to keep one pile, and having to pay the other pile in taxes. Are you better off? Of course you are.
Now, for many people, the pile you keep will be a whole lot bigger than the one that’s taxed. Depending on your income, and the size of your family, and how much our current system is penalizing you for your health problems, or the health problems of your spouse or your child, you might get, say, a pile of $20,000 back. By having to pay $20,000 less each year in premiums and copays and deductibles. And then you might have to split that into a pile of $15,000 and a pile of $5,000, and hand over that $5,000 in taxes. Which leaves you $15,000 better off. And look, the American people are not stupid. They can see that this is a better deal. So some of our friends on the other side of the aisle, or on Fox News, can stop their nonsense about Medicare for All raising taxes.
Other families, who earn a lot more money, might divide that $20,000 pile of money differently. They might pay $15,000 more in taxes and only end up saving $5,000. So let me ask you, if you are one of those wealthier individuals or wealthier families. Would you rather save $5,000 a year or not? Right, of course you would.
The only people who will end up paying more in taxes than they save on premiums and copays and deductibles are people who are quite wealthy. People who can afford it. And I think most of those wealthier Americans will be able to accept that. Both as a matter of human decency, and as a matter of political and economic fairness, and also, as we now see so clearly, because we are all connected. And contagious diseases don’t care how rich you are. So our society as a whole is only as safe as the least-insured person among us.
More and more Americans understand all this. And that’s why primary voters across the country have reported overwhelming support for Medicare for All. A few years back it sounded like a radical idea. But it wasn’t then, and it isn’t now. It’s something that’s already working in Canada, the UK, France, Australia, and more places than we’ve got time to list. It’s not some dream. It’s not some experiment. It is, in so many ways, simple common sense, besides being simple human decency.
And again, most of our voters now understand that. In fact, it almost seems like the only Democrat who doesn’t understand it yet is my friend Joe Biden. Because Joe actually said earlier this month that if he were president, and a bill for Medicare for All came to him to sign into law, he would veto it. Which I find truly hard to comprehend. And Joe repeats some of the deeply misguided Republican talking points about raising your taxes, or losing your current insurance. Which, by the way, we all know happens all the time under our current system, right? If you lose your job—like millions of Americans just did—guess what? You lose your current insurance. And each year when your employer shops around for insurance, and decides to switch, guess what? You lose your current insurance. That’s our current situation. That’s one of its many many flaws. Medicare for All will fix that flaw, along with the others.
You will never, ever, have to switch your insurance again. You will never, ever have to pay a premium or copay or deductible again. You will never, ever be denied coverage because of your preexisting condition again. And most importantly, in the United States of America, the richest country in the history of the world, healthcare will finally be treated as a human right, and will not be denied to anybody, or allowed to bankrupt anybody, ever again.
Now let’s connect that with our current crisis. We all know how the coronavirus is now ravaging our country and our world, and how deadly serious this situation is.
All of us, that is, except for President Trump. He was warned of what was coming at least as early as January. And he was warned even earlier by scientist that something like this was bound to come sooner or later. But he ignored those warnings. He ignored those scientists. He ignored the experts and the intelligence community and the emergency plans left by the Obama administration. And he lied to us. Consider some of what he said:
Those were lies. And we all know that Trump lies constantly, but this is different now, because these lies are very quickly and directly costing literally thousands of Americans their lives. More than 3,000 have already died, and thousands upon thousands more are going to die. This is inconceivable. This is an immense tragedy. And it did not have to happen, not on anything like this scale.
Now, let me be clear. No one thinks that Donald Trump caused this pandemic. And almost everyone would agree that he’s done at least a couple things right, like stopping flights from China early on. But he has also done, and is currently doing, many things very very wrong.
Trump came into office with scientists universally warning that a pandemic like this one was coming sooner or later. And President Obama and his predecessors had listened to those scientists, and taken steps to prepare. We had ventilators, masks, and other medical supplies in something called the Strategic National Stockpile. Our National Security Council had a Global Health Security and Biodefense unit that was responsible for pandemic preparedness. And they’d written a 70-page playbook for how exactly the federal government should respond to the start of a potential pandemic.
But we know Donald Trump. Donald Trump does not believe experts. Donald Trump does not believe scientists. Donald Trump does not believe that anything President Obama did could have been right. Donald Trump only believes his gut. He only listens to his friends on Fox and on Twitter. He only cares about himself.
So in 2018, that pandemic preparedness unit at the NSC was disbanded. And when the CDC and the intelligence agencies started warning him about this virus in January, he ignored them. As the virus spread, the playbook for how we should have been responding sat on a shelf in the White House. And all those ventilators and masks in reserve? That are right now so desperately needed by the doctors and nurses on the front lines, who are already getting infected and dying? And by the Americans who are going to be fighting for their lives against this virus in the weeks and months ahead? This is just stunning. In February, Donald Trump gave them away.
When Donald Trump should have been jumping into action to prepare us for what was coming, when he should have been talking to the American people about what was happening and how to prepare themselves, what was he actually doing? He was thinking about the stock market. He was thinking about himself, and his poll numbers. He was complaining about the media. And, as always, he was lying to us.
So we were not prepared. We did not have tests. We still do not have nearly enough tests. So we’re fighting blind, and the virus is still spreading. And because Donald Trump simply cannot stop lying, and cannot stop thinking only of himself, and cannot stop complaining about the media, he’s led a whole lot of Americans, and a whole lot of Republican politicians, to still not see this virus with the deadly seriousness that’s needed.
And so beaches are still open in Florida. Restaurants and bars and shopping malls are still open in Mississippi. And until a couple days ago, President Trump was saying that he wanted churches to be open and full on Easter.
So the virus is still spreading. People are picking up the virus today, not realizing that it will be weeks until they, or the people who they pass it on to, start falling sick. We continue to worsen our situation. We continue to take actions today that will cause suffering and death tomorrow. And Donald Trump is a big part of the reason why.
And even worse, Donald Trump is actively resisting the people who are trying to act. This is absolutely unbelievable. It is an absolute travesty. Donald Trump is such a small, selfish bully that he is picking fights with governors who are trying to save their citizens. He is saying they need to grovel to him, and ask if pretty pretty please they can have masks, or if just maybe they can have a few ventilators. He is absurdly accusing them of lying about what their people need. He is even, unbelievably, accusing our heroic doctors and nurses of stealing masks. It is completely insane.
And here’s something else that’s insane. Following Trump’s lead, some of his supporters in the government and in the media are still trying to minimize this crisis. And they are actually arguing that it’s no big deal that the virus is killing thousands of Americans, because you know, the flu kills people too. Or because car crashes kill people too. Or because the people who die will be mostly older people or people with health problems. Or that it’s ok if people die as long as that lets us reopen the economy faster.
This is appalling. This is un-American, and inhuman. There should be no need to explain this. But for those who somehow need an explanation, here it is.
Yes, the economy does matter—but only to the extent that it matters to real flesh-and-blood human beings. It only matters to the extent that it puts food on our tables and clothes on our backs. So to Trump and his billionaire buddies, I’m so very sorry, but your stock portfolios are gonna have to take a hit the next few months, because they are not worth our lives. And to the giant corporations that Republicans just handed so much money in the bailout bill, I’m sorry, but some of you are going to have to take out loans, and some of you are going to have to go through the bankruptcy process, because your shareholder value is not worth our lives.
Our concern needs to be for working people and not for investors and CEOs. Yes, we do need to save businesses, but we only need to do it in order to save jobs, not in order to preserve and increase the absurd level of wealth inequality in this country. And yes, we need to restart our economy, but only once we’ve controlled the virus. So the way that we do this is to support people. We need to send $2,000 a month to every American through the full duration of this crisis. And where we give money to businesses, we need to attach sane and fair terms to it, just like every other rich country in the world is doing, so that the support we give to them is passed on to their workers, and not siphoned off to CEO bonuses or stock buybacks.
And those trying to say these deaths are acceptable should be absolutely ashamed. What kind of human being thinks that way? What kind of American thinks that way?
Yes, people do die of the flu, and people do die in car crashes. And you know what? We try to avoid as many of those deaths as possible. We get flu vaccines. We wear seatbelts. And we make safety standards for cars. And we need to make healthcare available to everyone.
With the coronavirus, we need to be fighting with everything we’ve got to minimize the number of deaths. We need to work around the clock to undo as much of Trump’s damage as we can. To catch up on testing as quickly as we can. To get masks and gloves and gowns and ventilators as quickly as we can. To stop spreading the virus immediately. And to keep people indoors as long as is necessary.
Because we’re talking about deaths that can be avoided. We’re talking about deaths that wouldn’t otherwise be occurring, and that we have some control over. We are talking about the sickness and suffering and death of individual human beings. Of our children, our spouses, our parents, our friends, our neighbors.
Anyone who’s trying to say the death of the elderly is ok should be absolutely ashamed. How cruel and empty does a person have to be to say that a grandparent and friend and neighbor should die a horrible death, alone in a hospital bed with painfully failing lungs, unable to say goodbye to the people they love, and terrified that they might have passed the virus on to them—and that’s ok, because hey, they would have died within 5 or 10 years anyway. What kind of inhuman thinking is this? What kind of insanity?
We cannot shut our eyes to this sort of awful human suffering. We cannot shut our hearts to it. We need to be much, much better than that.
And so. It is overwhelmingly clear, it is painfully clear, that Donald Trump is unfit to be the president of the United States. He is causing the deaths of thousands of Americans who did not have to die. He deserves to be immediately removed by his Cabinet under the 25th Amendment. If any of those cowards have any decency left in them, they will stand up and remove him now.
If they don’t, then the Republican cowards in Congress need to stand up and help us remove him now. The House needs to impeach him a second time, for his horrific mishandling of this crisis, and then Senate Republicans need to do what they all know they should have done the last time, and vote to remove him from office.
I don’t know whether that will happen. I don’t know whether those men and women have any decency or courage left inside them. I don’t know how many thousands of bodies they are willing to watch stack up in how many refrigerated trucks. But I do know this. Whether the Republican on the ballot in November is Trump or whether it is Mike Pence, that Republican must be defeated. The American people must have a sane and decent president, who will listen to scientists and experts and our intelligence agencies. A president who will lead the fight against this virus wherever it remains in this country or in the rest of the world. A president who will bring relief to the millions of American workers struggling in the wake of this pandemic. A president who will work to rebuild our economy, and to build it better than it was, so that it works for all Americans instead of only for the wealthy.
The question is whether that person should be Joe Biden or whether it should be me. Which of us can beat Donald Trump, and end his carnage? Which of us can best address the coronavirus, and the economic crisis that it’s created?
I’ve already mentioned some of the differences between Joe and me. And the biggest at this moment has gotta be healthcare. Our old system never worked for millions of Americans, and now it’s breaking down even more dramatically. Joe says that he doesn’t support Medicare for All, and that in fact he’d veto it, and he thinks we should stick with employer-based private health insurance. But this month 5 million Americans lost their job, and lost their healthcare along with it. And those who still have health insurance are set to see their premiums skyrocket, as our healthcare system bends and breaks under the strain of the virus. It should be clearer now than ever that we need fundamental change. We need to change the system that was inefficient and cruel even in good times, but that now has become absolutely absurd. And that’s one reason that Joe is simply not the candidate that we need right now.
There is another difference between Joe and me that we need to talk about besides healthcare… and that is health. And look, this is a delicate subject, it is. But neither Joe, nor I, nor President Trump, are young men. We’re all in our 70s. And I don’t need to tell you that age can bring pain, and suffering, and weakness, and decline. You’ve seen it in your parents, your grandparents, your neighbors, your friends.
But this happens differently for different individuals, right? If you look at any old interviews with Donald Trump, for example, you hear a very different man, with a different way of thinking and speaking. More patient and focused, expressing more coherent ideas. But even today, Trump still has plenty of energy, and plenty of ability to crack a joke or fire up a rally. But unfortunately for all of us his ability to analyse and focus, and his ability to control his urges and impulses and anger, is diminished.
Or then there’s Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is doing so much to help lead our fight against the coronavirus. Did you know that Dr. Fauci is 79 years old? It’s hard to believe! But obviously he is still as sharp as anyone can be.
As for me, I know I don’t look quite as young as Dr. Fauci. But I do have to say that I am very grateful, and I consider myself very lucky, to feel well, and to have as much energy as I’ve ever had, for campaigning and rallies and interviews, for legislating and debating in the Senate, and, Lord willing, for serving as president.
And again, I know how delicate this subject is. But it is one that we have to talk about. And we have to talk about it in regard to my friend Joe.
Now, many people have noticed Joe seeming different, and sometimes seeming confused, in recent months. Now let’s be very clear. Joe has dealt with a stutter, and that is absolutely nothing but admirable. But that is not what we’re talking about right now.
And another thing we’re not talking about right now is the way that people misspeak now and then. Right? Sometimes we say the wrong word, or say a clumsy sentence that doesn’t read right if you go back and look at a transcript. But that’s not what we’re talking about right now. No, we’re talking about something different. We’re talking about the realities of aging, and how it can change the ways people think and speak. And that’s something very different.
Now, in my last debate with Joe, he looked really good. He was sharp, and ready, and we had a good debate.
But we need to talk about what’s happened since then. After that debate, Joe wasn’t seen or heard from for a full week. And since then he’s been isolating at home, which I completely support. But from home he’s put out a few statements and given a few interviews. And let’s take a look at those:
So look, this is no fun to talk about. But it’s just not something we can hide from. In part because Donald Trump and his friends at Fox are already all over it. And if Joe is our nominee, you can bet they’ll be all over it in the general election.
And… there is another issue in that category. Joe has been accused by several women of sexual harassment. And just the other day another accuser came forward. A former staffer of Joe’s named Tara Reade came forward to say that when she worked for him… now, it breaks my heart for her and for Joe to have to say this… but she’s now come forward to say that while she was working for Joe… Joe raped her.
None of these accusations against Joe have gone to court. So, due process is important… as is believing survivors. But again, one of the things that we have to consider here is Donald Trump and the general election. And we can be sure that Trump does not care about Joe’s due process. And as ludicrous as it is for someone like Trump—who’s said so many vile things about women, and who’s openly bragged about adultery, and who’s been accused of rape by his first wife Ivana and by E. Jean Carroll, and been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 23 different women—still, as ludicrous as it is, Trump will hammer Joe on this, and it will be effective. And Trump and his friends will also use, and are already using, footage like this:
There is… a lot… that could be said here. But let me just say this. We don’t know the future. And I strongly believe, based on every piece of polling data out there, and based on the strength of our our message and our movement, that we will soundly defeat Donald Trump. But yes, if you really want to play devil’s advocate here, I do know that it’s possible we could lose. But, I am genuinely pained to say, that as well as Joe’s done in the primaries so far, I see a whole lot more ways, for a whole lot of reasons, that Joe could lose. If he is the nominee I will absolutely support him and campaign for him, because Donald Trump is an unmatched danger to our country and our lives. But there are so many reasons to fear that if Joe is our nominee, then Joe will lose, and we’ll all be forced to endure four more years of Donald Trump. And with things as dark as they are right now, that is not a risk that we can afford to take.
So here let me talk to those who would prefer that Joe were the nominee. Or those who wanted it to be Mayor Pete, or Senator Klobuchar, or whoever else.
One point is that look, right now it’s down to me and Joe. And we know that we absolutely must beat Donald Trump, as this crisis has made clearer than ever. And between Joe’s health struggles, and his healthcare policies, and everything else that we’ve talked about, we’ve got a whole lot of reasons to worry that Joe would not be able to beat Donald Trump.
And we’ve also got a lot of reasons to think that I would. First just look at the polling, both nationwide, and especially in battleground states. But then consider this. We can unite to beat Donald Trump. Democrats who had somebody else as their first choice can pretty clearly support me against the extreme danger of Donald Trump. And so many people who are neither Democrats nor Republicans can see that the complaints they might have about the two parties, about blind partisanship or corporate funding or whatever it might be—they can see that that’s not who I am, and it’s never been. I’ve spent my entire career fighting for the American people, and calling out the establishments of both parties where they’ve been wrong.
And here’s the really important part. Our movement has brought millions of Americans into the political process. People of color, and young people, and poor people. People who don’t usually vote in large numbers. Because they can see that we are fighting for them. They hear our message of fairness, and solidarity, and creating a country and an economy that works for all Americans, and not just the wealthy.
And you know what? A whole lot of President Trump’s supporters can hear that message too. Working people who live in rural America, who live in Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin, who’ve lost factory jobs through disastrous trade agreements. They can hear us talking about better trade policies, and better working conditions, and living wages, and healthcare as a human right. And they realize that while yes, there are certain things that we disagree about, still we are fighting for them. Because we are fighting for all Americans.
And during the months of the general election campaign, during the debates against President Trump, during all the interviews and town halls and rallies and commercials—more and more of them are going to hear our message. And they’re going to begin realizing that all the empty promises Trump made to them are never going to be fulfilled by another four years of his madness and selfishness. No, those promises are going to be fulfilled by a $15/hour minimum wage. They’re going to be fulfilled by Medicare for All. They’re going to be fulfilled by universal paid family and medical leave. They’re going to be fulfilled by universal high-quality childcare and early childhood education. They’re going to be fulfilled by making all public colleges and universities tuition free, and discharging all student debt.
You see, Donald Trump tries to hide from all this, and distract from it, and from all his broken promises, by making people angry and making people afraid. By blaming everything on Mexicans, or Muslims, or the media, or whoever else he rants about or tweets about on any given day. But during months of campaigning against our movement and our message? He won’t have anywhere left to hide.
So in the face of our failing healthcare system and broken economy, and in the face of this awful virus and the economic devastation it’s causing, we need to come together. And we need to create an economy and a society that work for all Americans. So I’m asking you to join us. I will be a nominee for our entire party. And then when we defeat Donald Trump, I will be a president for all Americans.