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| For Biden and Sanders, the Fight’s Not Personal | For Biden and Sanders, the Fight’s Not Personal |
| (30 days later) | |
| In October 2015, Senator Bernie Sanders was whisked into Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s residence at the Naval Observatory for a breakfast of yogurt parfaits and caffeinated campaign advice from a vice president who had just announced his (temporary) retirement from presidential politics. | In October 2015, Senator Bernie Sanders was whisked into Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s residence at the Naval Observatory for a breakfast of yogurt parfaits and caffeinated campaign advice from a vice president who had just announced his (temporary) retirement from presidential politics. |
| [Update: Bernie Sanders endorses Joe Biden for president.] | |
| The meeting, according to aides, lasted longer than expected, nearly two hours, with Mr. Biden discoursing on campaign strategy and a range of policy issues, and expressing admiration for a Sanders political operation that was waging an unexpectedly tough fight against Hillary Clinton. | The meeting, according to aides, lasted longer than expected, nearly two hours, with Mr. Biden discoursing on campaign strategy and a range of policy issues, and expressing admiration for a Sanders political operation that was waging an unexpectedly tough fight against Hillary Clinton. |
| When Mr. Biden walked Mr. Sanders to his car, he clapped a hand on his shoulder and declared, “Good luck, buddy!” | When Mr. Biden walked Mr. Sanders to his car, he clapped a hand on his shoulder and declared, “Good luck, buddy!” |
| The two septuagenarians will meet again Sunday night under much different circumstances for the first, and possibly final, one-on-one Democratic primary debate of 2020, in a near-empty CNN studio in Washington selected to replace an Arizona venue because of the coronavirus crisis. Depending on how the night goes, the confrontation could be either a swan song for Mr. Sanders, who has suffered a string of crushing primary defeats this month, or a chance for the onetime front-runner to reassert his rationale for extending the contest. | The two septuagenarians will meet again Sunday night under much different circumstances for the first, and possibly final, one-on-one Democratic primary debate of 2020, in a near-empty CNN studio in Washington selected to replace an Arizona venue because of the coronavirus crisis. Depending on how the night goes, the confrontation could be either a swan song for Mr. Sanders, who has suffered a string of crushing primary defeats this month, or a chance for the onetime front-runner to reassert his rationale for extending the contest. |
| Mr. Sanders, speaking after last week’s losses in Michigan and three other states, telegraphed his intention to press Mr. Biden hard on health care, climate change and income inequality, and reiterated that intention in an online chat with supporters on Saturday, vowing to “demand” Biden address questions about “the power structure in America.” Yet the actions of both men in the aftermath of Tuesday’s primaries — Mr. Biden set out a welcome mat for his rival rather than pressuring him to quit, and Mr. Sanders outlined tough terms for an eventual détente — also shed light on a personal relationship that has remained sturdy, amicable and functional, a far cry from the acrimony that defined Mr. Sanders’s relationship with Mrs. Clinton after their bitter duel four years ago. | Mr. Sanders, speaking after last week’s losses in Michigan and three other states, telegraphed his intention to press Mr. Biden hard on health care, climate change and income inequality, and reiterated that intention in an online chat with supporters on Saturday, vowing to “demand” Biden address questions about “the power structure in America.” Yet the actions of both men in the aftermath of Tuesday’s primaries — Mr. Biden set out a welcome mat for his rival rather than pressuring him to quit, and Mr. Sanders outlined tough terms for an eventual détente — also shed light on a personal relationship that has remained sturdy, amicable and functional, a far cry from the acrimony that defined Mr. Sanders’s relationship with Mrs. Clinton after their bitter duel four years ago. |
| This no-frills personal connection, aides to both men say, could become an important factor in quickly uniting the party to confront President Trump, despite the wide policy gulf between the moderate Mr. Biden and the progressive Mr. Sanders. | This no-frills personal connection, aides to both men say, could become an important factor in quickly uniting the party to confront President Trump, despite the wide policy gulf between the moderate Mr. Biden and the progressive Mr. Sanders. |
| “I think both men know where this is likely going, and they both know how to approach one another,” said David Axelrod, a longtime adviser to President Barack Obama who worked closely with Mr. Biden in the White House. “Sanders, it seems to me, is a guy who wants to land the plane, and is asking Biden to show him some lights from the ground. There’s nothing personal standing in the way of them getting together.” | “I think both men know where this is likely going, and they both know how to approach one another,” said David Axelrod, a longtime adviser to President Barack Obama who worked closely with Mr. Biden in the White House. “Sanders, it seems to me, is a guy who wants to land the plane, and is asking Biden to show him some lights from the ground. There’s nothing personal standing in the way of them getting together.” |
| Mr. Sanders overlapped with Mr. Biden in the Senate for just two years, from January 2007, after his election, until Mr. Biden’s ascent to the vice presidency in 2009. Mr. Biden was not around all that much. Then a senator from Delaware and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he spent much of 2007 prepping for his unsuccessful presidential campaign, the latter part of 2008 running with Mr. Obama and the rest of the time focusing on committee work. | Mr. Sanders overlapped with Mr. Biden in the Senate for just two years, from January 2007, after his election, until Mr. Biden’s ascent to the vice presidency in 2009. Mr. Biden was not around all that much. Then a senator from Delaware and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he spent much of 2007 prepping for his unsuccessful presidential campaign, the latter part of 2008 running with Mr. Obama and the rest of the time focusing on committee work. |
| “They basically had zero interaction, but I can’t recall Bernie ever saying a bad word about Biden, or vice versa,” said David Krone, chief of staff to Harry Reid, the former Democratic Senate majority leader from Nevada, who was close to Mr. Sanders. | “They basically had zero interaction, but I can’t recall Bernie ever saying a bad word about Biden, or vice versa,” said David Krone, chief of staff to Harry Reid, the former Democratic Senate majority leader from Nevada, who was close to Mr. Sanders. |
| The two men have sparred, but not savaged each other, in previous debates. Mr. Biden recently told a person in his orbit that he thinks Mr. Sanders, while lacking an understanding of foreign policy, “is basically a good guy.” One longtime Biden staff member summed up the former vice president’s view in Baby Boomer cultural terms: In the mid-1960s, when both men were in college, Mr. Biden was a square, striving, law-school-bound ex-jock who would have seen Mr. Sanders as a noisy, strident, scraggly but basically benign campus archetype — “the hippie.” | The two men have sparred, but not savaged each other, in previous debates. Mr. Biden recently told a person in his orbit that he thinks Mr. Sanders, while lacking an understanding of foreign policy, “is basically a good guy.” One longtime Biden staff member summed up the former vice president’s view in Baby Boomer cultural terms: In the mid-1960s, when both men were in college, Mr. Biden was a square, striving, law-school-bound ex-jock who would have seen Mr. Sanders as a noisy, strident, scraggly but basically benign campus archetype — “the hippie.” |
| Mr. Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, has privately praised Mr. Biden as one of the few establishment senators to make him feel at home during his first few months in the Senate. (Mr. Obama, by contrast, later suggested in a memoir that Mr. Biden behaved a little arrogantly when he first arrived in 2005.) | Mr. Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, has privately praised Mr. Biden as one of the few establishment senators to make him feel at home during his first few months in the Senate. (Mr. Obama, by contrast, later suggested in a memoir that Mr. Biden behaved a little arrogantly when he first arrived in 2005.) |
| But Mr. Sanders has not been shy about highlighting their policy differences over the years, especially his opposition to the Biden-backed bailout of financial firms during the 2008 financial crisis and Mr. Biden’s initial support for the war in Iraq. | But Mr. Sanders has not been shy about highlighting their policy differences over the years, especially his opposition to the Biden-backed bailout of financial firms during the 2008 financial crisis and Mr. Biden’s initial support for the war in Iraq. |
| In brief remarks after his Super Tuesday defeats, Mr. Sanders slammed Mr. Biden on Iraq and on his support for “disastrous trade agreements” that he said had cost millions of jobs. “You cannot beat Trump with the same old, same old kind of politics,” he added. In subsequent days, he attacked Mr. Biden’s record on abortion, same-sex marriage and the former “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. | In brief remarks after his Super Tuesday defeats, Mr. Sanders slammed Mr. Biden on Iraq and on his support for “disastrous trade agreements” that he said had cost millions of jobs. “You cannot beat Trump with the same old, same old kind of politics,” he added. In subsequent days, he attacked Mr. Biden’s record on abortion, same-sex marriage and the former “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. |
| Mr. Sanders’s aggressive approach has, at times, angered Mr. Biden, who felt that Mr. Sanders had not acted quickly enough to muzzle supporters who posted racist and sexist attacks on two female officials of a Nevada union for opposing Mr. Sanders’s signature “Medicare for All” plan in February. “Disown them, flat disown them,” Mr. Biden told an interviewer at the time. “It’s outrageous.” | Mr. Sanders’s aggressive approach has, at times, angered Mr. Biden, who felt that Mr. Sanders had not acted quickly enough to muzzle supporters who posted racist and sexist attacks on two female officials of a Nevada union for opposing Mr. Sanders’s signature “Medicare for All” plan in February. “Disown them, flat disown them,” Mr. Biden told an interviewer at the time. “It’s outrageous.” |
| But Mr. Sanders, ever the ideology-impelled candidate, has taken pains not to personalize the fight. | But Mr. Sanders, ever the ideology-impelled candidate, has taken pains not to personalize the fight. |
| He has reiterated his belief that Mr. Biden can beat Mr. Trump and tempered his criticism on the trail, saying that “Joe is a decent guy” and referring to the former vice president as “my friend.” | He has reiterated his belief that Mr. Biden can beat Mr. Trump and tempered his criticism on the trail, saying that “Joe is a decent guy” and referring to the former vice president as “my friend.” |
| Privately, he has vented his disgust over Mr. Trump’s attempts to make a campaign issue of the business activities of Mr. Biden’s son Hunter. Mr. Sanders has expressed his sympathy to the former vice president directly during joint appearances and to his own staff, people close to both men said. | Privately, he has vented his disgust over Mr. Trump’s attempts to make a campaign issue of the business activities of Mr. Biden’s son Hunter. Mr. Sanders has expressed his sympathy to the former vice president directly during joint appearances and to his own staff, people close to both men said. |
| He has also pushed back on the perception, leveled by many former opponents, that he has tacitly encouraged supporters to scorch them by proxy. In January, he sought to distance himself from Zephyr Teachout, an ally from New York, who published an op-ed during the impeachment proceedings that accused Mr. Biden of contributing to a “transactional, grossly corrupt” political culture at a time when Trump supporters were hitting Mr. Biden for failing to stop Hunter Biden from joining the board of an energy company in Ukraine. | He has also pushed back on the perception, leveled by many former opponents, that he has tacitly encouraged supporters to scorch them by proxy. In January, he sought to distance himself from Zephyr Teachout, an ally from New York, who published an op-ed during the impeachment proceedings that accused Mr. Biden of contributing to a “transactional, grossly corrupt” political culture at a time when Trump supporters were hitting Mr. Biden for failing to stop Hunter Biden from joining the board of an energy company in Ukraine. |
| “It is absolutely not my view that Joe is corrupt in any way,” Mr. Sanders said, and then offered a fuller apology to Mr. Biden directly when the two marched in a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration in South Carolina, according to a Biden aide. | “It is absolutely not my view that Joe is corrupt in any way,” Mr. Sanders said, and then offered a fuller apology to Mr. Biden directly when the two marched in a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration in South Carolina, according to a Biden aide. |
| “Thanks for acknowledging this, Bernie,” Mr. Biden replied on Twitter. “Let’s all keep our focus on making Donald Trump a one-term president.” | “Thanks for acknowledging this, Bernie,” Mr. Biden replied on Twitter. “Let’s all keep our focus on making Donald Trump a one-term president.” |
| The subtext of the Biden-Sanders relationship is the former vice president’s belief that he could have limited Mr. Trump to zero terms had he, and not Mrs. Clinton, been the Democratic nominee in 2016. | The subtext of the Biden-Sanders relationship is the former vice president’s belief that he could have limited Mr. Trump to zero terms had he, and not Mrs. Clinton, been the Democratic nominee in 2016. |
| In that regard, Mr. Biden — who waited for Mr. Obama to endorse Mrs. Clinton in June 2016 before following suit — viewed Mr. Sanders as something of a stand-in for himself, according to a half-dozen people in his orbit. As the primaries dragged on, that feeling grew, and Mr. Biden became increasingly resentful of the full-court pressure to sit out the race that had been applied by Mr. Obama’s top advisers, at the president’s behest, according to several current and former advisers to Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama. | In that regard, Mr. Biden — who waited for Mr. Obama to endorse Mrs. Clinton in June 2016 before following suit — viewed Mr. Sanders as something of a stand-in for himself, according to a half-dozen people in his orbit. As the primaries dragged on, that feeling grew, and Mr. Biden became increasingly resentful of the full-court pressure to sit out the race that had been applied by Mr. Obama’s top advisers, at the president’s behest, according to several current and former advisers to Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama. |
| That lingering sense of grievance is one of the things that this time around motivate Mr. Biden, whose once avuncular, now grand-avuncular, demeanor masks a fierce competitive streak. He is also known to have a hair-trigger temper — which was on four-letter display last week when a construction worker in Michigan accused him of trying to confiscate his guns. | That lingering sense of grievance is one of the things that this time around motivate Mr. Biden, whose once avuncular, now grand-avuncular, demeanor masks a fierce competitive streak. He is also known to have a hair-trigger temper — which was on four-letter display last week when a construction worker in Michigan accused him of trying to confiscate his guns. |
| And while Mr. Sanders is widely expected to be the aggressor at the debate, it is just as likely that Mr. Biden, who is feeling confident, will be the candidate who raises his voice the loudest on Sunday night, according to people who have worked with him over the years. | And while Mr. Sanders is widely expected to be the aggressor at the debate, it is just as likely that Mr. Biden, who is feeling confident, will be the candidate who raises his voice the loudest on Sunday night, according to people who have worked with him over the years. |
| “Bernie, I think, knows that he has to strike a balance,” added Mr. Axelrod, who helped prepare Mr. Biden for his high-stakes vice-presidential debate with Paul D. Ryan in 2012. “But Biden is the one who really needs to shorten his horns to keep the tone of this thing positive.” | “Bernie, I think, knows that he has to strike a balance,” added Mr. Axelrod, who helped prepare Mr. Biden for his high-stakes vice-presidential debate with Paul D. Ryan in 2012. “But Biden is the one who really needs to shorten his horns to keep the tone of this thing positive.” |