Page 4 - aruba today

A4 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 14 March 2020
Biden virtual town hall marks

new normal for campaigning

By SARA BURNETT and BILL or moderate symptoms, ers are reluctant to talk
BARROW such as fever and cough, about what the coming
Associated Press for most people. It can weeks may look like, mostly
CHICAGO (AP) — Joe Biden cause more severe illness, because they don't know.
is holding a town hall in Illi- including pneumonia, for They've not announced a
nois from 800 miles away in some people, especially public schedule beyond
Delaware. Bernie Sanders older adults and those with Friday's town hall and a
is staging daily news con- existing health problems. similar event in Miami on
ferences from Vermont, Most people recover from Monday, both replacing
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe instead of his usual rallies it. Those with mild illness re- scheduled rallies ahead of
Biden speaks about the coronavirus Thursday, March 12, 2020, around the country with cover in about two weeks, Tuesday primaries.
in Wilmington, Del.
Associated Press thousands of supporters. while those with more se- If anything, those events
The global coronavirus vere illness may take three are tryouts for a new style,
pandemic has sent the to six weeks to recover, ac- while aides continue moni-
2020 presidential cam- cording to the World Health toring public health advi-
paign into a virtual phase. Organization. sories from the Centers for
Big rallies and handshakes With the coronavirus caus- Disease Control and Pre-
are out. Virtual phone ing a sea change in presi- vention.
banks and town halls are dential campaigning, In a staff memo, Anita
the new normal. Political candidates and their sup- Dunn, Biden's top strategist,
parties and groups are porters worry that the vir- and Jen O'Malley Dillon, his
canceling in-person gath- tual events won't have the new campaign manager,
erings. States holding pri- same impact. said that as of Thursday,
maries in coming weeks "We do more rallies than that guidance still suggests
have urged more voters to anybody else, and (they're) that "small gatherings are
cast ballots by mail and ex- often very well attended. I safe," as long as no ex-
tended hours for early vot- love to do them," Sanders posed persons participate.
ing centers in an effort to told reporters at a hotel in "We will continue to hold
avoid election day crowds. his home state of Vermont. smaller events like round-
On Friday, Louisiana's gov- "This coronavirus has obvi- tables, house parties and
ernor said he planned to ously impacted our ability press statements," besides
postpone his state's April 4 to communicate with peo- the virtual events.
primary to June. ple in the traditional way It's not the first time this
The Biden campaign that we do. That's hurting." election cycle that can-
scrapped plans for a Chi- In Chicago, Biden volun- didates have had to get
cago rally ahead of Illinois' teer Lally Doerrer was pre- creative about reaching
Tuesday primary due to paring to have a few oth- voters. Stuck in Washington
warnings from public and er supporters over to her for Trump's impeachment
health officials against home Friday to watch the trial in the weeks before
large gatherings. Instead, virtual town hall. The retir- the kickoff Iowa caucuses,
the Democratic front-run- ee finished an online MBA Sens. Elizabeth Warren and
ner was taking questions program a few years ago Amy Klobuchar held tele-
Friday in a virtual town hall and said it helped famil- phone town halls with Iowa
via Facebook live. iarize her with technology voters, and Sen. Bernie
Sanders, Biden's rival for like virtual classrooms and Sanders held nightly online
the Democratic nomina- the potential for it to reach chats where he spoke to
tion, has been holding many more people than a supporters via live stream,
daily press briefings from his rally. And while she believes offering updates on the
home state, where he has canceling large gather- impeachment trial and his
blasted President Donald ings is the right thing to do, campaign.
Trump and his administra- she doesn't think the virtual Klobuchar, who said over
tion's response to the virus. events will have the same 12,000 Iowa voters partici-
Biden did the same in an impact as when people pated in one of her tele-
address Thursday. come together in person. phone town halls, also
Speaking to reporters Fri- "There is a common physi- spoke via phone to vot-
day, Sanders was subdued cal element that comes ers in New Hampshire, the
— the emotional oppo- from being face to face, or second state to vote. War-
site of the big rallies that better yet marching side by ren held similar calls with
have helped fuel his sup- side, and that's what is lost voters in New Hampshire
port at the polls. He drew in this," Doerrer said. and South Carolina ahead
over 10,000 people at a The policy extends to field of those states' primaries,
Chicago rally on Satur- offices around the country, as she campaigned else-
day, before officials start- as well — just as the cam- where. She suggested later
ing warning against large paign was looking to build while campaigning in per-
events. Sanders said his out the campaign toward son that she'd reached
team has mastered the use a potential general elec- thousands of voters that
of internet campaigning, tion matchup against Presi- way, but her campaign
livestreaming almost all of dent Donald Trump. Trump never released figures on
its events already. himself has canceled ral- how many people actually
COVID-19 causes only mild lies, for now. Biden advis- dialed in.q