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Democrats Move Debate From Arizona to Washington Because of Virus Concerns

Sunday’s debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders will be shifted to the capital, the latest political event to be affected by safety concerns over the coronavirus.

Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. at the debate in Charleston, S.C., last month. Their debate on Sunday is set to be held in Washington without a live audience. Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Democratic National Committee has moved Sunday’s planned presidential debate between former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders from Phoenix to Washington because of concerns about the coronavirus, the D.N.C. announced Thursday.

A spokeswoman for the committee, Xochitl Hinojosa, said the debate, to be broadcast on CNN, would take place at the cable network’s Washington studio. The Democratic Party had already announced that the event would take place with no live audience or an assembled press corps.

The shift is the latest example of the way concerns about the coronavirus have affected the presidential primary. Both candidates canceled election-night rallies on Tuesday, and subsequently called off campaign events scheduled before the debate and next Tuesday’s primaries in four states, including Florida and Ohio.

Officials briefed on the discussions said it was agreed upon Thursday morning by the two campaigns and D.N.C. officials, who were only hours from dispatching more than a dozen staff members from Washington to Phoenix to begin preparing for the debate.

Washington was selected to host the debate because CNN has a studio in the capital and both campaigns and the D.N.C. have staff already in or near the city who would not have to travel through commercial airports to attend the debate.

Mr. Biden will travel to the debate from his home in suburban Wilmington, Del. Mr. Sanders has been at his home in Burlington, Vt., since arriving there from Michigan on Tuesday evening.

Ms. Hinojosa also said that the Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, one of the debate’s moderators, would not participate because he had been “in proximity with someone who was in direct contact with a person that tested positive for coronavirus.”

Mr. Ramos will be replaced by another Univision anchor, Ilia Calderón, Ms. Hinojosa said.

The debate is the first in which Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders will appear together without any other candidates. Though Mr. Biden has shown the ability to assemble a powerful coalition, and is widely viewed as likely to carry at least three of the four states with primaries on Tuesday, Mr. Sanders and his campaign have long looked forward to pressing the former vice president on his record and proposals without interference from others onstage.

Reid J. Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. More about Reid J. Epstein

Sydney Ember is a political reporter based in New York. She was previously a business reporter covering print and digital media. More about Sydney Ember

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