Bernie Claims President Trump ‘Demonizing Immigrants’, Says he Wouldn’t Close Borders To Prevent Coronavirus Spread

During a Fox News Town Hall held in Dearborn, Michigan last night with Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the topic of discussion at the beginning was the coronavirus. Towards the end of the segment, Brett Baier asked, “If you had to, would you close down the borders?” Bernie responded by saying, “no,” and claimed President Trump only wanted to do so because he has been “demagoguing and demonizing immigrants.”

Baier: If you had to, would you close down the borders?

Bernie: No, what you don’t want to do right now, we have right now is a President who has propagated xenophobic, anti-immigrant sentiment from before he was elected. What we need to do is have the scientists take a hard look at what we need to do. There are communities where the virus is spreading. What does that mean? It may mean self-quarantine, it may be not having public assemblies. But let’s not go back to the same old thing. Isn’t it interesting that a president who has been demagoguing and demonizing immigrants, the first thing that he could think about is closing down the border, so we need scientists to tell us the appropriate approach, not a political one.

President Trump tweeted this morning about Sanders, saying that it is “Going to be a BAD day for Crazy Bernie!”

Going to be a BAD day for Crazy Bernie!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 10, 2020

Sanders, for his part, claimed in a tweet of his own that “as a nation,” we need “Medicare for all” in order to “effectively respond to the coronavirus.”

As a nation, we cannot effectively respond to the coronavirus when 30 million Americans lack health insurance.

We are all in this together. We need Medicare for All.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 10, 2020