US Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris face off in a vice-presidential debate.
Salt Lake City:
US Senator Kamala Harris on Wednesday attacked Donald Trump’s response to Covid-19 as a failure in a high-stakes debate with Vice President Mike Pence in the context of the president’s own infection.
With Pence first in line for the presidency in case Trump is unable to fulfill his duties, and Harris essentially auditioning to be the future leader of the Democratic Party under President Joe Biden, his standoff over the pandemic took on a new urgency 27 days. before the elections.
“The American people have witnessed the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country,” said Harris, a US senator from California and a former prosecutor, in the opening moments of the debate in which the candidates were separated by Plexiglas. .
Saying that Trump treated front-line healthcare personnel as “sacrificial workers,” Harris, pointing to Trump’s own statements to journalist Bob Woodward, accused the White House of failing to take action despite knowing the risks of Covid-19 .
“The president said it was a hoax. They downplayed its severity,” Harris said.
After a raucous debate eight days ago between Trump and Biden, Pence and Harris initially adopted a more civilized tone, without name calling, but deeply disagreed on the reaction to the pandemic.
“I want the American people to know, from day one, that President Donald Trump has put America’s health first,” Pence said, pointing to his travel ban from China on January 31, a month after he cases emerged in Wuhan. .
Referring to a controversy that sank Biden’s first presidential campaign in 1988, Pence said that the Democrats’ Covid plan sounds “a bit like plagiarism, which is something Joe Biden knows a little about.”
Trump feels “perfect”
Two more presidential debates are scheduled, but now they are up in the air with Trump’s diagnosis, which means that the debate between the running mates could turn into the final candidate clash before November 3.
Biden, 77, has said he would not want to debate whether Trump, 74, confined to the White House after a three-night hospitalization, is still sick with the virus.
But Trump, always the hyperbolic showman, said in a video Wednesday that he felt “perfect.”
“I think it was a blessing from God to have gotten it,” she said, explaining that her diagnosis provided opportunities to highlight the therapies that were administered to her and that she would like more Americans to receive.
In a nod to medical concerns, Harris and Pence sat 12 feet (3.6 meters) apart for the 90-minute debate at the University of Utah, with the Plexiglass installed despite pushback from the Trump campaign.
When asked by reporters Wednesday if he had any advice for his running mate on one of the most important political stages of her career, Biden said: “I think she will do well.”
Harris, if elected, would make history by becoming the highest-ranking woman in American history and the first African-American and Asian-American vice president.
Call to unity vs “wacko”
The debate comes at a time when more than 210,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus and the nation is reeling from crisis to crisis.
Trump has not only tested positive; The coronavirus has spread through his inner circle, infecting dozens of top advisers, administrative staff, senior military officials and Republican lawmakers.
Racial and political tensions are simmering, prompting Biden to issue a wake-up call to national unity and warn that “the forces of darkness” and division are “pulling us apart.”
Trump continued his all-out verbal offensive, calling Biden “insane” in a series of angry tweets Wednesday.
The president is facing dire figures in polls and an economy reeling from Covid shutdowns that have left countless families and businesses in trouble.
Trump also continues to warn that he may not accept the election result, arguing that mail-in ballots lead to fraud, while Senate Republicans are rushing to confirm their Supreme Court nominee, even as some members of the their caucus are in quarantine.
The unique political storm led Republican Senator John Barrasso to describe the Pence-Harris showdown as “the most momentous vice presidential debate since they started doing this” in 1976.
“The people watching these two candidates will be watching to see who is ready to be commander in chief,” Barrasso told CNN.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
.
