Joe Biden in CNN 2020 S.C. Town Hall

On Budget & Economy: Under 2009 Recovery Act, we had one place to call

On Drugs: Drugs don't cause mental health issues; it's the reverse

On Health Care: Coronavirus: Deal with health crisis before economic crisis

BIDEN: Medical experts indicate to me that it's more likely to be sometime into June, before we'd be in that position. But nobody knows for certain. What we do know is that it's a false choice to make, saying that either open the economy or everything goes to hell, or, in fact, you take care of the medical side. You cannot make this economy grow until you deal with the virus and that curve. You can't deal with the economic crisis until you deal with the health care crisis.

Q: When our savings account inevitably runs out due to him not being able to work right now, what is it that we sacrifice?

BIDEN: You should not have to sacrifice anything, not just because it's the fair thing for you be taken care of. You should not have to pay a penny for testing. You will be covered. Anything related to the cost of the coronavirus health care should be free, paid for out of the federal funds.

On Homeland Security: Coronavirus: Use Defense Production Act for needs

We should be using the Defense Production Act to do whatever we need to do, whether it's the rapidity with which testing has to take place that you get a result, to actually getting the tests done, to investing in whether or not you have protective gear for our first responder

On Jobs: Universal paid sick leave' $15 minimum wage; support unions

On Principles & Values: Coronavirus: Trump should do his job, not personalize it

BIDEN: No. But every single day, I speak to all five of my grandkids either on my phone, or I text with them. Two of them, Beau's children, live a mile as a crow flies from our home. We sit on our back porch and they sit out on the lawn with two chairs there, and we talk about being home from school, and who's driving whom crazy, and so on and so forth, but at least I get to see them.

Q: What should President Trump do differently regarding coronavirus?

When he talks to governors, he says, be careful when you talk to that governor, they're not very good, or calls another governor a snake. This is not personal. It has nothing to do with you, Donald Trump, nothing to do with you. Do your job. Stop personalizing everything. One of the governors I spoke to, when they called and asked for help in terms of masks and other things, the president allegedly told her that, no, you take care of yourself. That's not my responsibility.

On Principles & Values: Leadership: reassure, rely on experts, management

BIDEN: Number one, understanding that you have to be both reassuring, but you have to look to experts to give you advice on, in this case, scientists. The second most important thing is to be able to manage. What I found was you have to manage it every single day. It's about management. It's about day to day to day. And I give you my word for the better part of that 18 months, I was literally on the phone at least three to four hours a day with my team talking about the detailed implementation.

On Civil Rights: Made commitment to have women on Senate Judiciary Committee

What I did was, I made a commitment. Never again would the Judiciary Committee only have men on that committee. So I went out and I campaigned for two people: Carol Moseley Braun and Dianne Feinstein on the condition that if they won, they would join the committee. I kept that commitment.

On Crime: 1994 Crime bill had community policing and crime went down

We should change the whole prison system from one of punishment to rehabilitation. Nobody should go to jail for drug use. They should be put in rehabilitation. Mandatory rehabilitation. Secondly, anybody in prison, anybody in prison should be learning a trade, should be being taught something. If you can't read, write, add and subtract, you should be able to learn that in prison. And when you get out you should be able to qualify for every federal program across the board.

On Education: Your zip code shouldn't matter in access to a good education

Education is going to be the bellwether in the 21st century. The idea you can make it in the middle class and sustain yourself there with just 12 years of education is not accurate, whether you need a trade and/or you have to go beyond that. We should change the way we educate our people. For example, why is it in every school, why isn't programming part of the science curricula that satisfies your science requirement?