JUDY WOODRUFF: After Tuesday's
Democratic presidential
primary contests, former Vice
President Joe Biden
has a clear lead.
He won four states, Idaho,
Missouri, Mississippi,
and Michigan. Vermont
Senator Bernie Sanders
won North Dakota. And there
is no projected winner
yet in Washington state.
Our Lisa Desjardins has more.
LISA DESJARDINS: Today, Bernie
Sanders spoke in a smaller,
more sober setting than usual.
The senator from Vermont said
that defeating President Trump
was still his number-one goal,
and he will keep challenging
Joe Biden for the Democratic
nomination, despite yesterday's
primary night letdown.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT),
Presidential Candidate:
On Sunday night, in the
first one-on-one debate
of this campaign, the American
people will have the opportunity
to see which candidate
is best positioned to
accomplish that goal.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ
(D-NY): There's no sugarcoating
it. Tonight's a tough night.
LISA DESJARDINS:
Sanders supporter and
New York Congresswoman
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
took to Instagram to
console supporters and
congratulate Biden.
In a majority of yesterday's
contests, moderate,
suburban and black voters
propelled the former
vice president to victory over
Sanders, leading to this moment
last night in Philadelphia,
with Biden making this appeal
directly to Sanders backers:
JOSEPH BIDEN (D),
Presidential Candidate:
I want to thank Bernie
Sanders and his supporters
for their tireless energy
and their passion. We share a
common goal. And, together, we
will defeat Donald Trump.
LISA DESJARDINS: One
major Biden supporter,
longtime South Carolina
Congressman Jim Clyburn,
told NPR that it might
be time soon to wind
down the primary fight.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): I
think we will be at a point
where Joe Biden will be the
prohibitive nominee of the
party, and I think the DNC, the
Democratic National Committee,
should then step in,
make an assessment, and
determine whether or
not they ought to have
any more debates.
LISA DESJARDINS: Both scrapped
planned events last night
because of coronavirus concerns.
And the planned TV debate
on Sunday will go on, but
without a live audience.
For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm Lisa Desjardins.
JUDY WOODRUFF: To give us more
insight on how the Democratic
Party is handling this
changing primary race, I'm
joined by Democratic National
Committee Chair Tom Perez.
Tom Perez, welcome
back to the "NewsHour."
TOM PEREZ, Chairman, Democratic
National Committee: Always
a pleasure to be with you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: First question,
does Bernie Sanders still have
a chance to win the Democratic
nomination?
TOM PEREZ: Certainly.
We're -- a little under 50
percent of the delegates have
been allocated. The magic number
is 1,991. And so primaries
are often about - - they're
always about math, and they're
often about momentum.
And, certainly, the vice
president has achieved
some momentum here in
South Carolina, Super
Tuesday, and then this week.
I have coached enough team
sports and been around politics
enough to know that momentum
shifts do occur. And our job is
to make sure that we continue
to have a fair process and
continue to work so that,
whoever our nominee is,
we can hit the ground
running and we will
be united as a party.
And I'm confident we will.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So how do
you respond to Congressman
James Clyburn's saying
that it's time for
the DNC, it's time for this
primary process to be shut down?
TOM PEREZ: Well, I think it's
always up to the candidates
to figure out when it is time
to say when.
And I respect the judgment of
Senator Sanders moving forward.
We have four more very important
races next Tuesday. Those
will provide us with some more
information and insight, because
they're big states,
Ohio, Illinois, Arizona.
And the biggest prize
of all next Tuesday
is Florida.
So we will be over the 50
percent mark by the end of the
day Tuesday. Two weeks from
Tuesday -- or two weeks from
yesterday, we then go down to
Georgia. And so that's basically
what we have for
the next few weeks.
And I think then, again, this
is about math. This is about
understanding where you are
in a process. And I don't think
it's my place, as the DNC chair,
to tell somebody when it's
time to end your campaign.
That's always up to the
candidates. I didn't
call Pete Buttigieg or I
didn't call Amy Klobuchar
or any of the candidates who
got out. I never called anyone
and said, I think it's really
time for you to get out. That
was a judgment that they made
on their own, based on their
own analysis.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But it does
sound as if other leaders in the
party are saying that, either
out loud or privately.
TOM PEREZ: Well, again,
I can't stop others from
doing what they're doing.
What I can do is make sure that
everybody gets a fair shake.
And one thing I know -- because
I have had the good
fortune of working with
both the vice president
and with Senator Sanders,
one thing I know is that,
whoever our nominee is, they are
both going to work their tails
off to defeat Donald Trump.
And we have seen an absolute
explosion in turnout. And I
credit not only the two of
them who are still in the race.
I credit all the candidates,
the excitement that has been
generated throughout
this Democratic primary.
You look at yesterday, more
record turnout. You look at
Super Tuesday, record turnout
in New Hampshire.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Yes.
TOM PEREZ: Blew through
the numbers in 2008, South
Carolina, the same thing.
So, the energy is there, the
momentum is there. And we
will come together as a party.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I'm sure that you
heard Senator Sanders' statement
today, the questions that
he said he wants to hear Vice
President Biden respond to
having to do with Medicare for
all, having to do with college
debt, with climate change,
suggesting pretty clearly
that he wants, he expects Joe
Biden to accommodate some of
Bernie Sanders' positions.
How far do you think Joe Biden
should go in accommodating
some of the more progressive
ideas of Bernie Sanders?
TOM PEREZ: Well, I think --
again, one of the things that
gives me great optimism as
we move forward, Judy, is that
what unites us as a party far
exceeds what our differences
are.
Everybody running for president
understands the imperative
of combating climate change
and making sure that we make
decisions based on the science.
Everybody understands that.
Everybody running for president
understands that we should
make sure everyone has access
to quality, affordable health
care. And thanks to LBJ and
Barack Obama, we're about 85, 90
percent the way up the mountain
of universals health care.
They undeniably have
differences of opinion
on how to get that 15, 10
percent to the mountaintop,
but the imperative of getting
there, they have complete
agreement on. And the imperative
of making sure that people with
preexisting conditions being
able to maintain their coverage,
they completely agree on.
Taking on the pharmaceutical
industry, they completely
agree on. So, what unites us, I
think, far exceeds what
our differences are. And
the voters will see that.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Two quick
questions about coronavirus.
Given the severity of what
we know is now going on, it's
a pandemic, should our two
political parties find ways
to work together that they
haven't found before now on this
issue?
TOM PEREZ: Well, I think there
are a number of areas where
I would hope that we could
have worked together.
One letter we sent a long
time ago was, if either party
obtains information that was
a product of foreign
interference, we should
never use that information.
We sent a letter
a while ago calling on the
Republicans to come together
on that. Unfortunately, they
said no.
I would love to figure out
ways to work together. We
should be following our
public health guidance,
our public health professionals.
I have great respect for the
doctors and other professionals
at the National
Institutes of Health.
I had the privilege of working
with many of them in the Obama
administration. And I think
we should be able to
come together. This is
- - coronavirus is not
about right vs. left.
It's about public health. And
it's about making sure that we,
as a nation, can come together.
It's very disappointing
to see the absence of
sufficient preparedness.
I saw how preparedness
worked with Ebola. You may
recall and your viewers will
recall, when President Obama
took office, H1N1 was very real,
and that preparedness helped.
Those shouldn't be partisan
issues. We should be able to
come together around principles
of preparedness.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Very
quickly, plans still
on for the Democratic
National Convention in
July?
TOM PEREZ: Yes, they are. And
we're going to continue to
work with federal, state and
local officials to make sure
that we put no one in harm's
way, so that we can have a good
convention.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Tom Perez,
thank you very much.
TOM PEREZ: Thank you.