Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told Fox News on Monday evening that would not close America’s borders to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
During a town hall on Monday evening, was asked what he would do differently from Trump to protect Americans from the rapid spread of the illness, which originated in Wuhan, China..
When anchor Bret Baier asked “would you close down the borders” stop a coronavirus outbreak, Sanders responded “No.” The exchange went as follows:
Bret Baier: If you had to, would you close down the borders?
Bernie Sanders: No. What you don’t want to do right now when you have 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, maybe 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 can think about is closing down the border. So we need scientists to tell us the appropriate approach, not a political approach.
Sanders’ comments actually contrast with the conclusions of doctors and scientists. The New England Journal of Medicine recently reported: “At least on a temporary basis, such restrictions may have helped slow the spread of the virus.”
President Donald Trump administration has implemented travel bans on China and Iran, two of the most coronavirus-affected nations in the world, over the early objections of his critics.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) denounced Trump’s travel ban to protect Americans from the coronavirus, claiming travel bans “do more harm than good.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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