Sanders tells Fox News Town Hall he wouldn't close US borders during coronavirus-type contagion

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Sanders tells Fox News he wouldn't close US borders amid coronavirus

Sanders tells Fox News he wouldn't close US borders during coronavirus-type contagion

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Monday during a Fox News Town Hall that he would not consider restricting movement across the U.S. border to prevent the spread of a worldwide contagion like COVID-19, commonly called the coronavirus.

Anchor Bret Baier asked Sanders about the option after President Trump expressed strong support for closing borders in that instance.

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Sanders responded by calling Trump's actions in office xenophobic and claiming the president is "propagating ... anti-immigrant sentiment from before he was elected."

Instead of making what he characterized as a political decision in response to an epidemic, Sanders said he would let the medical experts and scientists decide what steps to take.

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Sanders also said he suspected Trump may be using the coronavirus outbreak as a vessel to force the implementation of his controversial border security policies.

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"Isn't it interesting that a president who has been demagoguing and demonizing immigrants, the first thing [he] can think about is closing down the border?" Sanders asked. "We need scientists to tell us the appropriate approach."

Sanders stressed the importance of self-quarantining and considering the reduction of public assemblies if the contagion gets worse in a certain area.

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Last week, Trump announced new strict travel "edicts" affecting Iran, Italy and South Korea and confirmed he's looking to potentially tighten the southern border.

"Yes, we are thinking about [the] southern border, we have received a lot of power on the southern border over the last couple of years from the courts but we are looking at that very strongly," Trump said at a Feb. 29 press conference.

Fox News' Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.