Winners and Losers from the Bernie Sanders-Joe Biden Debate

As coronavirus shuts down many activities across the country and even causes states to postpone their primaries, the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates with a shot at the nomination pressed forward with an audience-free debate Sunday night.

Here’s what we learned, in the form of winners and losers.

Winners

Joe Biden: Bernie Sanders right now needs a fundamental change in the race to chip away at Biden’s delegate lead, and it’s not clear anything transpired Sunday night that might provide that. He repeatedly pointed to votes Biden had taken as a senator and bills he had worked on that don’t fit as well with today’s Democratic Party, and Biden got testy at times. But Biden was largely focused, and he repeatedly brought things back to what was clearly a point of emphasis for him: Saying he had worked to get things done while Sanders lobbed bombs from the sidelines. “I did that, while you were watching,” he said at one point about a renewable energy bill. He repeated his talking point that “people want results, not a revolution,” and then expanded on it. “We have problems we have to solve now -- now,” he said. “What’s the revolution going to do? Disrupt everything in the meantime?"

Biden wasn’t sterling at the debate, but he seldom is, and the lack of an audience seemed to work against Sanders, who often thrives on them. Sanders also needed more from this than Biden did. Biden drove home the point that he would be a steady, pragmatic hand at an uncertain time. And the crisis we find ourselves in right now fits nicely with that message.