Former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenThe Memo: Warning signs flash for Trump on debates Senate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden National postal mail handlers union endorses Biden MORE and Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersSenate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden Hillicon Valley: DOJ indicts Chinese, Malaysian hackers accused of targeting over 100 organizations | GOP senators raise concerns over Oracle-TikTok deal | QAnon awareness jumps in new poll Schumer, Sanders call for Senate panel to address election security MORE (I-Vt.) in interviews on Sunday both condemned President Trump Donald John TrumpBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Military leaders asked about using heat ray on protesters outside White House: report Powell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy MORE’s and his administration's response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The two 2020 Democratic presidential candidates criticized the president’s response as the threat from the virus expands in the U.S., with the first recorded death from the disease confirmed in Washington state on Saturday.

Biden said on ABC's "This Week" that his response as president would have been “fundamentally different,” denouncing the administration for previously cutting funding to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and appointing Vice President Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard PenceGOP short of votes on Trump's controversial Fed pick Pence seeks to boost Daines in critical Montana Senate race The Hill's Campaign Report: Trump's rally risk | Biden ramps up legal team | Biden hits Trump over climate policy MORE to lead the fight against the disease, among other concerns.

“This has been outrageous the way they proceeded,” he said. “They should let the scientists speak.”

The former vice president also slammed Trump for comments during a rally in South Carolina where the president called the Democrats’ criticism of the coronavirus response “a hoax” and compared it to the impeachment.

“This is not a Democratic hoax,” Biden said. “This is incompetence on the part of the president of the United States at the expense of the country and the world.”

“I see no preparedness other than political talking points, putting someone in charge who is not a scientist and muzzling the scientists," Joe Biden says on Trump's response to the coronavirus.



"This is not a Democratic hoax, this is incompetence ...” https://t.co/23kgGkwFyy pic.twitter.com/BZUdtNtDCl — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 1, 2020

Sanders on the same show also knocked the administration's reaction to the outbreak, saying that as governments globally are trying to combat the virus, Trump took to South Carolina to “undermine” the Democratic primary, which “blows me away.”

“How pathetic is it that in the midst of an international health care crisis, you’ve got a president running into South Carolina trying to steal some media attention away from Democrats,” the senator said.

Bernie Sanders slams Trump amid coronavirus outbreak: “How pathetic is it that in the midst of an international health care crisis, you’ve got a president running into South Carolina trying to steal some media attention away from Democrats.” https://t.co/wGwD0uWZ3e pic.twitter.com/cUE3T6Ts9u — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 1, 2020

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar also appeared on “This Week” Sunday and cautioned against the “partisan sniping that we’re seeing.”

“We don't need to have this made a political issue,” he said. “We're in a public health crisis here. We need to all be banding together.”

The coronavirus has infected 72 people in the U.S., among more than 87,000 worldwide. Almost 3,000 have been killed from the virus, with one in the U.S. thus far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.