The Note: Biden turns to general election on unequal footing
Campaigning as we've known it does not exist at the moment.
The TAKE with Rick Klein
Becoming the presumptive nominee in early April is an outcome any candidate in any normal year would gladly take.
But forces both inside and outside his Democratic Party leave former vice president Joe Biden working at a relative disadvantage, and not yet in total control of the party he will lead into the fall.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has now left the race but has not left not the fight. Sanders is claiming to have "won the ideological struggle" and -- in an unusual step -- said he intends to stay on the ballot to accumulate delegates to wield in platform fights and other matters that will be settled at the Democratic National Convention.
That's if there even is a convention in any recognizable sense, of course. Campaigning as we've known it does not exist at the moment. Biden can't be sure when he'll be free to leave his house, much less attending fundraisers and visiting battleground states.
President Donald Trump is also home-bound. But his home is the White House, where he steers his daily news conferences into the realm of political mischief, as he stokes the perception that the Democratic Party somehow engineered the primaries for Biden over Sanders.
"I mean, he said he's going to keep his delegates and, which is sort of interesting, he's going to keep his delegates and he would like to get more. Now, is he dropping out or not? That's not dropping out," Trump said Wednesday.
Team Biden would take this set of circumstances over the alternatives that looked likely early on the voting season. There will be no contested convention, and Biden can now expect a boost from former President Barack Obama -- who has made clear he would endorse after the nomination is settled.
Politics will return to normal at some point, even if that's a new normal. Biden's hope is to use the extra time he has on his hands now in ways that will matter when the focus returns to the campaign.
The RUNDOWN with MaryAlice Parks
To put it flippantly: everyone seems more sympathetic about Democratic socialism during a crisis.
Even Vice President Mike Pence, early on his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, used terms and phrases that could have been ripped from a speech by Sanders.
Pence said the federal government would work with health insurance companies to make sure the cost of copays and deductibles were not such a burden that some Americans exposed to the coronavirus might hesitate to get tested or seek care.
Now with millions of Americans out of work too, the broad and brazen policy idea Sanders championed, about the government providing insurance so that it would not be tied to employment, is having its own moment again too.
Moving forward, the pandemic may give Biden an easy avenue for embracing more of Sanders' proposals and, in theory, winning over more of his supporters.
With so many progressives believing their ideas at least have been vindicated in this moment, it is hard to imagine Democrats like Biden dismissing a robust conversation about potential health care reforms.
The TIP with Alisa Wiersema
A day after Wisconsinites braced long lines, bad weather and potential health risks to cast their ballots, Sanders' decision to suspend his presidential campaign may have come as a surprise to some voters.
"I cannot in good conscience continue to mount a campaign that I cannot win, and which would interfere with the important work required of all of us in this difficult hour," Sanders said in his livestream announcement Wednesday.
But despite Sanders' acknowledgment of the vast impact the coronavirus pandemic is forcing on American lives, his decision to stay on the ballot in remaining states' primaries could expose him to newfound criticism over public health.
At least one state official, Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill, is already saying that the suspension of Sanders' campaign "effectively ends the justification to hold a presidential primary" amid the dangers of a pandemic, but in order to cancel the primary, Merrill's office would need to receive a letter from Sanders announcing his withdrawal from the ballot by April 27.
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News' "Start Here" podcast. Thursday morning's episode features ABC News' Steve Osunsami, who tells us how African Americans have been impacted by the coronavirus, both medically and socially. Then, ABC News Deputy Political Director MaryAlice Parks games out the 2020 election after Sen. Bernie Sanders threw in the towel Wednesday. And, ABC News' Anne Flaherty explains why some officials believe a new antibody test could be the key to reopening the economy. http://apple.co/2HPocUL
ABC News "Powerhouse Politics" podcast. Dr. Zeke Emanuel, one of the key architects of the Affordable Care Act and a special adviser to the director general of the World Health Organization, told ABC News Political Director Rick Klein and Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl that he doesn't anticipate life fully returning to normal for another 18 months. http://bit.ly/2kI0pXP
Five Thirty Eight Politics Podcast. Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Wednesday that he is suspending his campaign for president of the United States. In this emergency installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew discusses why he lost, why he decided to drop out when he did and what his role in American politics will be going forward. https://53eig.ht/2Jb12X2
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