Elbow bumps, social distancing, and Medicare for All: The coronavirus pandemic dominated every aspect of the Democratic debate
WASHINGTON — This is politics in a pandemic age: A presidential debate conducted in a sterile television studio, podiums separated by an awkward six feet, and a former vice president insisting that he no longer touched his face. (Seconds before, he had touched his face.)
The debate cemented the weeks-old reality that the novel coronavirus pandemic has come to dominate every aspect of American politics. And it provided the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates — who greeted one another not with a handshake but with an elbow bump — a chance to articulate a presidential message in the face of inconsistent, often inaccurate messaging from the Trump administration.
