Super Tuesday II is big for Biden. Bye Bye Bernie?

It's set up for Joe

The once-stumbling and staggering Joe Biden looks unstoppable in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

"It's more than a comeback … it's a comeback for the soul of the nation," the former vice president said Tuesday night during a speech in Philadelphia, after he rolled over Bernie Sanders in Michigan, mauled him in Mississippi and triumphed easily over him in Missouri. In an appeal aimed at Sanders and his supporters, Biden thanked them "for their tireless energy and their passion" and said, "We share a common goal, and together we will defeat Donald Trump."

Sanders chose not to speak on Tuesday night. The Vermont democratic socialist's popularity with under-30 voters was no match for Biden's superior strength with older Americans, suburban voters, whites and especially blacks. Exit polls showed Biden beat Sanders 84% to 13% with African Americans in Mississippi. Union households in Missouri sided with Biden by 60% to 35%.

The loss in Michigan, the biggest prize of the night with 125 delegates at stake, was a body blow to Sanders. The progressive campaigned there heavily and upset Hillary Clinton in the state in 2016.

Even with Washington state and two states with the fewer delegates, Idaho and North Dakota, still to be decided, Sanders for the first time faced the question: Is there any point in staying in the race? Click here for the latest results.

Biden's expanding lead in delegates (see Newsday's tracker here) and the primary calendar still ahead looked bleak for Sanders, who isn't winning over enough voters for his revolutionary agenda. Two big-money Democratic donor groups, Priorities USA and American Bridge, left the sidelines to get behind Biden, looking toward the general election.

But Democrats closing ranks around Biden will need to tread gingerly in encouraging Sanders to hang it up. Even as more Democrats see Biden as their most electable choice, beating President Trump will be tougher if Sanders' loyal supporters don't come on board.

Fears for cheers

Before the polls closed, Biden and Sanders both canceled rallies in Cleveland that were scheduled for Tuesday night because of the potential for the COVID-19 coronavirus to spread in crowds.

Sanders spokesman Mike Casca said Ohio state officials "communicated concern about holding large, indoor events during the coronavirus outbreak." He said future events will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said, "We will continue to consult with public health officials and public health guidance and make announcements about future events." An event in Tampa, Florida, for Thursday also was canceled.

What about Trump? His campaign announced he'll headline a "Catholics for Trump" rally in Milwaukee on March 19.

Relief package not ready

Trump is at odds with both Republicans and Democrats in Congress on his ideas for a package to shore up the economy from coronavirus disruptions.

In pitching a payroll tax suspension, Trump told Republican senators he'd want to keep it going through November and not take it away before the election, Bloomberg News reported. Other than that, he offered few specifics, according to The Associated Press.

Trump also has spoken about helping hourly wage workers to ensure they’re “not going to miss a paycheck” and aiding the cruise ship and airline industries. The White House strongly is considering pushing federal assistance for U.S. oil and natural gas producers hit by plummeting oil prices, according to The Washington Post.

House Democrats are pressing forward with their own economic package that includes paid sick leave for certain workers, extra funding for children’s school lunches, expanded unemployment insurance and increased spending on social safety-net programs, Politico reported. Vice President Mike Pence, in his daily coronavirus briefing, spoke favorably of paid sick leave to encourage workers with worrisome symptoms to stay home.

While the what and when of a relief package is uncertain, the prospect that Congress will do something seemed to buoy Wall Street, where the Dow recovered 1,167 points from Monday's 2,013-point fall.

Don't worry or be wary?

Trump has tempered his past no-worries rhetoric but is still standing on the bright side of coronavirus messaging.

"Everybody has to be vigilant and be careful, but be calm. It's working out. A lot of good things will happen," Trump said.

But it's going to get worse before it gets better, warned Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, at the White House briefing with Pence.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re in a state that has no case or one case: You have to start taking seriously what you can do now to prepare for when the infections come — and they will come,” Fauci said. The surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, added a sobering prediction: "Unfortunately, we are likely to see more deaths. We have not hit the peak of this epidemic quite yet."

Janison: Trump guy's covert ops

Erik Prince, a Trump ally who co-founded the private military contractor Blackwater USA, has been dabbling in homefront skulduggery of late, according to a recent report.

According to The New York Times, Prince helped recruit an ex-spy for Britain's MI6 agency for a secret operation that copied files and recorded conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers. In an interesting coincidence, Prince also is the brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the nation's most powerful nemesis of the teachers' unions.

The surveillance was carried out by Project Veritas, which claims status as a news organization but has acted for years as a provocateur for right-wing causes. For more, see Dan Janison's column for Newsday.

Well, shoot

Biden fired off a couple of epithets at a Michigan autoworker who charged earlier Tuesday that the former vice president wanted to take away people's guns.

“You’re full of [expletive],” Biden said. He told the worker he would ban assault weapons, not confiscate all guns. But the argument grew more heated. The man continued to press Biden on the issue, almost physically pushing up against him, and exclaimed, “You’re working for me, man,” NBC News reported.

Biden responded: "I'm not working for you, gimme a break, man. Don't be such a horse's [expletive].” (Here's a video clip. Warning: strong language.)

What else is happening:

• Andrew Yang, from his CNN commentator's perch Tuesday night, became the latest ex-rival to endorse Biden. Yang paid tribute to Sanders as having inspired his own campaign.
• The Biden and Sanders campaigns and the Democratic National Committee agreed to not bring a live audience to their March 15 debate in Phoenix because of coronavirus worries.
• Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said it's wrong to describe the virus that causes COVID-19 as the "China virus" or the "Chinese coronavirus," as Trump and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) have done. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) sent a letter to all of her congressional colleagues on Feb. 26, urging them to stop using terminology that stokes fear and prejudice against Asian Americans.
• The Trump administration is hurrying to develop contingency plans that would allow hundreds of thousands of federal employees to work remotely full time, The Washington Post reports.
• The Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review has backed down after warning that a CDC flyer with advice on preventing the spread of coronavirus "is not authorized for posting in the immigration courts." That initial guidance sparked an uproar from the immigration judges' union.
• A federal appeals court in Washington ruled Tuesday that the Justice Department must give Congress the secret grand jury testimony from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The opinion authorizes access to information that Democrats have sought since the conclusion of Mueller’s investigation, giving lawmakers previously undisclosed details from the two-year Russia probe.
• Richard Grenell, installed by Trump last month as acting director of national intelligence, refused to participate in briefings Tuesday to Congress about foreign threats to the U.S. election. The Washington Post reports Grenell was apprehensive about a sensitive subject that tends to upset the president, and one that got his predecessor fired.
• Trump has turned down an invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend a May ceremony in Moscow to mark the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany, according to the Kremlin. Putin has expressed disappointment over current leaders of World War II allies who won't come, calling it a "mistake."