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Democratic vice presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris (R) and United States Vice President Mike Pence (L) during the vice presidential debate at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, October 7 2020. EPA-EFE / Justin Sullivan / POOL
Differences over race, the coronavirus and the economy, with an annoying fly thrown for good measure, were highlighted in what was mostly a relatively quiet debate between US Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris at Salt Lake City, Utah, last. night.
Some sparks erupted during the US Vice Presidential debate on Wednesday night when Acting Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly spoke about the moderator, Susan Page, and went through the two minutes allotted to answer questions. Pence also used his response time on more than one occasion to refer to an earlier question in order to make a point.
The debate began with the hot topic of the coronavirus, in which Pence explained and defended the handling of the pandemic by the Trump administration, after Harris reminded Americans that the president did nothing in January despite know the virus and how dangerous it was:
“And here’s the thing, on January 28, the vice president and the president were informed about the nature of this pandemic … they knew what was happening and they didn’t tell you … the president said it was a hoax.”
When asked why the death toll in the United States is almost 50% higher than in other rich countries, Pence replied that “President Donald Trump did what no other president has ever done … and I think he saved hundreds and thousands of American lives. “
When Harris responded to the question of whether he would take a vaccine if it were available, he said that if medical experts and doctors said it was reliable, then yes, but if Trump said take it, then no. Pence responded that Harris was undermining “the public’s trust in a vaccine” and “playing politics with people’s lives … we will have a vaccine before the end of the year.”
Both Pence and Harris displayed their strong debating pedigree by their calm demeanor and studied responses. Mike Pence is generally seen as the calm of Trump’s chaos and as a great asset to the president in this regard; something he showed when he, in some points almost more mannequin than human, pushed all the tax and coronavirus points that Trump claims in a level way, but in a much more lucid way.
Harris reminded people that she was the daughter of immigrants when she said, “The day I got the call from Joe Biden, it was actually a zoom call, asking me to serve with him on this ticket … I thought about my mother who came to the United States at age 19 … “
She did not respond directly to a question about whether she and Biden had discussed a “presidential disability” plan, given Biden’s age (77). The follow-up question for both her and Pence was, considering the ages of Biden and Trump (74), should there be transparency with the American public around their health?
Pence said that after the president was hospitalized over the weekend with Covid-19, doctors had been transparent about his health, despite media reports at the time asking for more information and showing inconsistencies between what some Members of the president’s medical team had said and the treatment protocols. . Pence also said he was grateful that the president was doing well and thanked American citizens, and Harris, for their well wishes, but did not really say whether he thought the president should be transparent about his health.
The debate also showed marked differences in campaign attitudes toward race and racial justice. On the question of whether they believed justice had been served for Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old African-American woman who was shot and killed by police in her home, Harris clearly said no, while Pence evaded a direct answer.
It would be fair to say that Pence did indeed explain his path to NOT answering the tough questions, including the controversy of what would happen if Trump lost the election. Would it be accepted as the end of the game? Possibly not, as Pence replied: “First of all, I think we are going to win this election.” He then got mildly angry with Harris, saying that “his party has spent the last three years trying to overturn the result of the last election. A lot of words; very few responses.
Harris and Pence played their starring roles civilly in the only vice president debate of the U.S. election campaign, but a surprise cameo towards the end nearly stole the show – a large black fly appeared out of nowhere and landed. for about two minutes on Pence’s head. . Apparently this was one more minute than Joe Biden needed to turn the fly into a fundraising opportunity; see the tweet:
Invest $ 5 to help make this campaign soar. https://t.co/CqHAId0j8t pic.twitter.com/NbkPl0a8HV
– Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 8, 2020
The fly stood out starkly against Pence’s perfectly cut silver hair, as if the universe was berating the vice president for his lack of response to the question of whether the climate crisis is an existential threat. DM
An Wentzel is Night Editor, a journalist for the Daily Maverick, she went to the United States to visit her family when the pandemic hit and is currently abandoned in the land of the ‘free’.
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