The Stakes 2020: The coronavirus edition and texting with Pramila Jayapal

THE LEDE

We at The Stakes apologize for the massive delay in sending this, but as you may have noticed, the world looks completely different than it did a week ago. Calculating the impact of the coronavirus (and of a global economic slowdown) seems impossible. It’s also fundamentally transformed the campaign: Joe Biden will hold virtual events, both he and Bernie Sanders have told staff to work from home, and Sunday’s debate will take place in Washington, DC, without an audience. The conventions are still on — for now.

The coronavirus campaign

Both Biden and Sanders have been forced to frame their campaigns around how they would respond to the coronavirus as president. Sanders yesterday used the outbreak to continue to make a concerted pitch for Medicare for All. Biden, meanwhile, has really begun to look past the primary and spoke about the coronavirus from Wilmington, Delaware — a clear rebuttal to and contrast with Trump’s Wednesday night Oval Office address. It should probably be noted here that Tuesday night saw Biden win five out of six contests, and it’s hard to see what Sanders’ path to the nomination is from here.

If you read two things this week

Make sure it’s Ruby Cramer’s unbelievably detailed piece about the week Bernie Sanders realized he was losing. And read Miriam Elder’s incredible essay on how to live when you don’t trust your leader to do the right thing.

READ RECEIPTS

Texting with Pramila Jayapal

Rep. Pramila Jayapal is the cochair of the progressive caucus in the House and one of Bernie Sanders’ strongest supporters on Capitol Hill. She also happens to represent the Seattle area, which is one of the places hardest hit by the coronavirus. We texted throughout the day on Thursday about dealing with the pandemic, Sanders, and if she’d spoken to her friend and Trump’s new chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

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ON THE TRAIL WITH BUZZFEED NEWS

California Rep. Katie Porter, a protégé of Elizabeth Warren’s, was able to extract a promise from the head of the CDC to make free coronavirus testing available to uninsured Americans, Molly Hensley-Clancy reported.

From Kadia Goba and Molly: Kamala Harris told a roundtable of black journalists there were “so many examples” of bad coverage because of a lack of diversity in the media.

Black Democrats in Missouri and Mississippi knew they were the reason Joe Biden’s campaign turned around, Nidhi Prakash reports.

Also from Nidhi: Leaders in Flint, Michigan, were livid at Biden for not really addressing the water crisis there and using it as a campaign stop.

What’s the view from Fox News these days? Miriam watched a lot of it and surprise! It was pretty xenophobic.

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