• Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden have recently come together to share ideas on how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic spreading rapidly across the country.
  • Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, told The Washington Post this week that senior aides on the two campaigns have discussed both campaign-level and policy responses to the virus.
  • A Biden campaign aide also told The Post that the campaign has decided to stop attacking Sanders as the Vermont progressive reportedly mulls dropping out of the race following poor showings in a series of key primary contests.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden are still technically battling it out in the Democratic presidential primary, but the two candidates have recently come together to share ideas on how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic spreading rapidly across the country.

Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, told The Washington Post this week that the two camps “have been in regular contact at a senior level” to confer over how the virus is affecting their campaigns, “as well as to discuss both Vice President Biden’s and Senator Sanders’ ideas on policy responses to the virus.”

She went on: “While the two campaigns obviously have their differences, they are working together to try to promote the health and safety of their teams, those who interact with the campaigns, and the American people.”

Sanders has proposed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package – double the spending allocated by the Senate bill that passed Wednesday night. The more progressive relief plan would send $2,000 to every American each month and provide free healthcare to all in the form of Medicare for all.

By contrast, Biden's coronavirus response proposal would only cover Americans' healthcare costs related to the virus.

"In terms of potential deaths and the impact on our economy, the crisis we face from coronavirus is on the scale of a major war, and we must act accordingly," Sanders said in a Tuesday night speech. "We must guarantee that everyone who needs care can get it for free, and ensure that all workers continue to receive paychecks so they can make ends meet."

A Biden campaign aide also told The Post that the campaign has decided to stop attacking Sanders as the Vermont progressive reportedly mulls dropping out of the race following poor showings in a series of key primary contests.

Sanders' campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, released a statement on Wednesday morning, after the senator lost primaries in Florida, Arizona, and Illinois, saying there was "no sugarcoating" his candidate's losses. But Shakir argued that while Sanders was "losing the battle over electability" to Biden, he has "won the battle of ideas."

Sanders will likely attempt to pressure Biden to adopt some of those ideas in his general election bid against President Donald Trump.

Shakir said the candidate and his wife, Jane Sanders, were consulting with supporters in their home state of Vermont to "assess the path forward for our campaign."

Sanders hit the ground running in a series of early primary and caucus states as the campaign season kicked off, but he failed to pick up momentum on Super Tuesday, and subsequently lost key delegate-rich states like Michigan and Florida to Biden, significantly narrowing his path to the nomination.