Joe Biden in 11th Democratic Primary Debate

On Principles & Values: Biden will run on most progressive Democratic platform ever

On Jobs: I supported $15 minimum wage in NYC years ago

Biden: So did I, and I went out and campaigned for it.

Sanders: $15 an hour?

Biden: $15 an hour, in New York City. Go to the Governor. You should be aware of it.

Sanders: I will talk to the Governor. I am not aware of it. Four years ago, it was a radical idea. Very few people in Congress were talking about it.

FactCheck by PolitiFact:Biden is right about his efforts in NYC. In 2015, Biden campaigned with NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo to boost NY's minimum wage to $15 per hour. Biden spoke for nearly 30 minutes andÿcalledÿ"stagnant wages" the biggest issue facing the economy. Cuomo eventually signedÿlegislationÿto gradually increase the hourly minimum wage to $15 for all New Yorkers.

On Abortion: Everyone voted for Hyde Amendment; it was in other bills

On Budget & Economy: Supported bank bailout, but someone should have gone to jail

Sanders: I voted against the bailout because I believed that the illegal behavior being done by the people on Wall Street should not be rewarded by a bailout. I thought that in the midst of massive income and wealth inequality, the people on top [should pay for the] bail out. Joe voted for that. I voted against it.

Biden: Had those banks all gone under, all those people Bernie says he cares about would be in deep trouble--all those little folks would lose everything that they had in that bank, whether it was $10 or $300 or a savings account. This was about saving an economy, and it did save the economy, and the banks paid back and they paid back with interest. I agree with Bernie, some of them should have gone to jail. That was the big disagreement I had in terms of bailing out, but they paid back.

On Corporations: Bailout package should reward individuals, not corporations

We've eaten a lot of our seed corn here. The ability for us to use levers that were available before have been used up by this godawful tax cut of $1.9 trillion. We're going to have to not only deal with the immediate crisis, economic crisis, which is the most critical now to let people know their mortgages are going to be paid, their rents are going to be paid, they're going to have childcare, they're going to make sure that all their medical bills are cared for. We have to go beyond that.

On Education: Provide school lunch even if schools closed for pandemic

We have to have the best science in the world telling us what can stay open and what need be closed. Like I said earlier, the idea that we are closing schools, which I understand, but not being able to provide lunches for people who in fact need the school lunch program to get by.

I can understand the decision made to close places where a hundred or 50 people or more gather, but how do you deal with the things that necessarily have to be kept going and what's the way to do that? There should be a national standard for that. It should be coming out of the situation room right now.

On Education: 12 years of education is not enough; we need 16 now, free

BIDEN: I've been saying for a long time that we're in a position where 12 years of education is not enough for the 21st century. We need 16 years of education. [I support] the exact bill that Senator Sanders introduced, a little over a year ago, capping it off at $125,000 in income. You could get free up to that point; after that, you'd have to pay for your college education. It worked for public schools, and it would work for public universities in your state. It was a good idea and I support it. Bernie happens to be right on that one.

Q: Senator Sanders, I assume you'd welcome these changes?

Bernie SANDERS: The difference between Joe and I on higher education is: four years ago, it was not a popular idea, Joe. Glad you're coming around now. Four years ago, when I said that public colleges and universities should be tuition free, people were saying, "Bernie, that's a radical idea." Well, you got states that are moving in that direction.

On Energy & Oil: I wrote the first climate change bill in the Congress

My plan takes on the fossil fuel industry and it unites the world. I'm saying we bring them together, make them live up to the commitments. If they don't live up to the commitments, they pay a financial price for it. They pay an economic price for it. Because we can do everything, my state is three feet above sea level. I don't need a lecture on what's going to happen about rising seas. I wrote the first climate change bill that was in the Congress, which PolitiFact said was a game changer.

On Environment: World should give $20B to Brazil to stop burning Amazon

In addition, I would immediately rejoin the Paris climate accord, which I helped put together. I would call on the 100 nations, the 100 major polluters, in the first 100 days, to up the ante and make it clear that in fact if they didn't, there'd be a price to pay.

And lastly, I would be right now organizing the hemisphere and the world, to provide $20 billion for the Amazon, for Brazil no longer to burn the Amazon, so they could have forests. They could have farming [but instead of burning, say], "This is what we're going to do." The region is burning out.

On Foreign Policy: Insist on our experts in China, we have to lead the world

Joe Biden: I insisted, the moment this broke out, that we should insist on having our experts in China, in China to see what was happening, and make it clear to China there'd be consequences if we did not have that access. We have to lead the world. We need someone who knows how to bring the world together and insist on fundamental change in the way in which we're approaching this.

On Government Reform: 30 years ago, I proposed campaign finance reform

Biden: You want to do that? Do what I proposed over 30 years ago: federally fund all elections.

FACT-CHECK: Did Biden propose campaign finance reform long ago? Yes, he proposed donation limits when there were no limits, in 1974, with federal matching funds:

Biden on 1974 WGBH "Open Vault" (PBS interview): "The system does produce corruption; I think implicit in the system is corruption. If the only way you can raise any money to run for public office is to go to vested interest groups, then you prostitute the ideas you have about government. If you limit the amount that can be spent, you run the risk of the tyranny of the incumbent [against] a challenger. [I support] a bill that limits the amount that an individual can contribute [to] $3,000. And I support [a bill to federally] match donations up to $100.

On Health Care: Coronavirus national rally: care; testing; hospital capacity

1. We have to take care of those who are exposed, or are likely to be exposed to the virus, and that means we have to get the testing kits up & ready. I'd take advantage of the test kits the World Health Organization have available. I would make sure that every state had at least 10 places where they had drive-through testing arrangements.
2. We have to deal with the economic fallout quickly, and that means making sure that people who lose their job, can't pay their mortgage, are able to pay it.
3. I would also at this point deal with the need to begin to plan for the need for additional hospital beds. We have that capacity with FEMA: they can set up 100-bed, 500-bed hospitals and tents quickly.

On Health Care: Accept coronavirus test kits from World Health Organization

Biden: No. The World Health Organization offered the [coronavirus] testing kits that they have available and to give it to us now. We refused them. We did not want to buy them. We did not want to get them from them. We wanted to make sure we had our own. [Trump] said something like, "We have the best scientists in America," or something to that effect. We are not prepared for this. I agree with Bernie, we're in a situation where we have to now be providing for the hospitals that are going to be needed, needed now.

Sen. Bernie Sanders: This is a time for all of us working together. The World Health Organization is a very, very strong organization. It is sad that we have a President that has ignored the international community in so many ways, including in terms of international health crisis.

On Health Care: We've handled pandemics before, present system not ready

With all due respect to Medicare for all, you have a single-payer system in Italy. It doesn't work there. It has nothing to do with Medicare for all. That would not solve the problem at all. We can take care of that right now by making sure that no one has to pay for treatment, period, because of the crisis. No one has to pay for whatever drugs are needed, period. No one has to pay for hospitalization. period. That is a national emergency, and that's how it's handled.

On Health Care: Restore all cuts made to ObamaCare, then add more

On Homeland Security: We used National Guard for Ebola; use for new pandemic too

On Immigration: Xenophobia is a disease; invest in Latinos' future

BIDEN: Anyone who shows up to be tested for Coronavirus, or gets Coronavirus treated, would be held harmless. There are certain things you cannot deport an undocumented person for and that would be one of them. We want that. It's in the interests of everyone. And those folks who are the xenophobic folks out there, it's even in their interest that that [infected person] come forward, because it keeps the spread from moving more rapidly.

Q: What about closing the Mexican border during the pandemic?

BIDEN: Our future rests upon the Latino community being fully integrated. If we do not invest in their future, everything that the xenophobes are concerned about will in fact get worse, not better. We should be embracing, bringing them in, just like what happened with the Irish immigrants after the famine, just what happened with the Italians, et cetera. We've been through this before, xenophobia is a disease.

On Immigration: No deportations unless aliens committed a felony in the US

Joe Biden: I said that it took much too long to get it right and the President did get it right, by DACA, making sure that it tried to protect parents as well. I will send to the [Congress] immediately a bill that requires access to citizenship for 11 million undocumented folks, number one. Number two, the first hundred days of my administration, no one, no one will be deported at all. From that point on, the only deportations that will take place are commissions of felonies in the US.

Q: So to be clear, only felons get deported and everyone else gets-

Joe Biden: Period.

Q: They get to stay?

Yes, it's about uniting families. It's about making sure that we can both be a nation of immigrants, as well as a nation that is decent.

On Principles & Values: I commit to nominating a woman as my Vice President

Joe Biden: Number one, I commit it that if I'm elected President and have an opportunity to appoint someone, I'll appoint the first black woman to the Supreme Court. It's required that they have representation; now it's long overdue. Secondly, my Cabinet & my administration will look like the country. And I commit that I'll pick a woman to be Vice President. There are a number of women who are qualified to be President tomorrow, I would pick a woman to be my Vice President.

Q: Mr. Vice President, just to be clear, you just committed here tonight that your running mate, if you get the nomination will be a woman?

Joe Biden: Yes.

Q: Senator Sanders, will you make that same statement, committ to picking a woman as your running mate?

Bernie Sanders: In all likelihood, I will. For me, it's not just nominating a woman. It is making sure that we have a progressive woman.

On Principles & Values: People are looking for results, not a revolution

On Social Security: Increase Social Security benefits without cuts

Joe Biden: No.

Sanders: You never said that?

Biden: No.

Sanders: All right. America, go to YouTube right now. You were not a fan of the balanced budget amendment, which called for cuts in Social Security? Why don't you just tell the truth here? We all make mistakes.

Biden: I am telling the truth. Why am I rated 96% by the Social Security organizations? I have laid out how I will increase Social Security benefits. I have laid out how I'm going to make sure that it is in fact, paid for. Look at my exchange with Paul Ryan on his desire to try to privatize and/or cut Social Security, and understand how he manipulated it. Are you saying PolitiFact is wrong? In terms of the negotiations on how to deal with the deficit, everything was on the table. I did not support any of those cuts on Social Security.

On Social Security: Restructure tax code while protecting Social Security

Sanders pointed to aÿspeechÿBiden gave to theÿBrookings Institutionÿin April 2018. Biden's overall message was that the tax code "is widely skewed toward taking care of those at the very top." Sanders plucked out what Biden said about Ryan, but ignored the complete passage which showed that Biden wanted Social Security and Medicare protected, and to accomplish that goal would require making changes to the tax code.

The Sanders campaign omitsÿwhat Biden said next: "We need a pro-growth, progressive tax code that raises enough revenue toÿmake sure that the Social Security and Medicare can stay. It still needs adjustments, but can stay."