Bernie Sanders had a cold. The presidential candidate was sitting in the Senate chamber last week listening to Adam Schiff explain why Donald Trump should be removed from office and he retrieved a crumpled tissue from his pocket to wipe his runny nose. It didn’t help that it’s chilly inside the cavernous room. Sanders frequently rubbed his hands together and at one point tucked them under his sweater. (Elizabeth Warren used a hand warmer.)

I watched Sanders and his colleagues from the press gallery, the rim of the fishbowl the Senate has been turned into, for hours over the course of several days. And what was most striking was the contrast between presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the man who is one of perhaps just two or three people most likely to be the next leader of the Democratic Party, and Senator Bernie Sanders, a famous loner in the upper chamber who rarely interacted with his colleagues during days of trial presentations.

On Wednesday I was back in Iowa for the final days before the caucuses. With four of his rivals presiding at Trump’s trial, Joe Biden had the state almost to himself and the contrast with Sanders was telling. While In Washington I watched Sanders struggle to generate excitement among his Senate colleagues, in Iowa I watched Joe Biden, the candidate with the most Senate endorsements, struggle to generate enthusiasm among a small group of voters in Council Bluffs, on the Nebraska border.


Biden is a creature of the Senate. Sanders is a creature of the campaign trail. Observing them back to back in these two settings helped clarify the choice before voters.