At debate, Biden says he'd enlist military to confront coronavirus

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Former Vice President Joe Biden said if he were president, he’d call on the U.S. military “now” to help combat the coronavirus outbreak.

“It is a national emergency. I would call out the military,” Biden said Sunday night at the Democrats’ presidential debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

“They have the capacity to provide the surge help that hospitals need and that is needed across the nation. I would make sure that they did exactly what they’re prepared to do.”

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Pointing to the use of the military to help battle the Ebola crisis during his tenure as vice president in the Obama administration, Biden spotlighted that “they’ve done it. They did it in the Ebola crisis. They’ve done it. They have the capacity to build 500-bed hospitals in tens that are completely safe and secure.”

The former vice president last Thursday for the potential deployment of military resources to combat the pandemic as he laid out a proposal to battle the coronavirus.

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Some politicians and pundits started asking in recent days why the military wasn’t more deeply involved in the fight against the virus.

In a New York Times op-ed on Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., urged President Trump to use the Army Corps of Engineers to add more medical facilities.