Harris vs Pence, in the debate between deputy and confrontation by Covid. Kamala attacks: “You lied …”. Number two Trump remains cold

Was a debate more content and civilized than last week between Donald trump me Joe Biden. It was a debate that does not change the course of the electoral campaign. The two deputy candidates, Mike pence me Kamala harris, was faced at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City by Covid-19, health, economy, judges, judicial reform, relations with China, climate. As expected, Pence carried out his duties diligently. He defended Trump and the administration for handling the health emergency. He attacked Biden and the Democrats especially on taxes and jobs. Again, as the president had already done, he avoided saying whether the Republicans will accept the result of the vote. Harris, for his part, recalled his past as a prosecutor California district. It was effective on the subject of health. In an hour and a half round trip, one thing became very clear: these elections are and will be above all a referendum in administration by emergency trump coronavirus.

It is often said that televised debates between deputies do not get many votes. In all likelihood, this time it will be the same. And the rest there undecided percentage, 26 days after the vote, it is now very low: according to some surveys, about 6 percent. The Salt Lake City debate was meant to serve one thing above all else. To better clarify the figures of the deputies, in an election that sees the confrontation between the two oldest candidates in American history: Biden is 77, Trump is 74 (and a Covid diagnosis behind). From this point of view, last night’s confrontation was useful. He confirmed what was already known about Mike Pence: solid, disciplined, not particularly imaginative, not particularly gifted in terms of rhetoric, able to convey Trump’s message in a more civilized but no less radical way. Harris was in his first real public test as a candidate. She seemed aggressive but avoided certain dialectical roughnesses typical of the past (and her training as a magistrate). Above all, he continually put “Joe” at the center of the debate; perhaps to avoid criticism from Republicans, who purport to portray Elder Biden as a “hostage” to the much more radical Harris.

In general, the debate seemed to go once again in the direction desired by the Democrats. The real problem, for Trump is his, at this point is to change the course of the electoral campaign. At this point almost constant the polls of the last weeks reveal the dTrump’s difficultyeven in states like Florida and Arizona that seemed more easily within reach. The latest poll CNN shows Biden ahead of Trump by 16 points. To do this, the Republican campaign absolutely needs a narrative change. As such, Donald Trump is desperately trying to turn his Covid diagnosis into an opportunity to get him out of the highly controversial handling of the pandemic. Hence the effort to minimize emergency, calling Covid-19 “a flu” and asking Americans not to be afraid and get on with their normal lives.

This is no easy feat for Trump, as last night’s debate shows. Harris’s best moments were when he attacked Trump and Pence for the coronavirus. The Democrat immediately went on the attack. “You lied… You knew since January that it was going to be a devastating crisis… The American people have witnessed the greatest failure of a president and an administration in the history of our country, ”he said. Ignoring an interviewer’s question – Susan Page from USA Today – Asking what Biden’s plans are against the coronavirus, Harris went on to cite the more than 210,000 American deaths and explained that “people have already had to make too many sacrifices due to the incompetence of this administration.” Pence stayed cool but without much arguing. He denied lying and to Page, who asked him why the administration organized the appointment ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett without complying with any security measures, the vice president babbled something about the “resistance and sacrifice” of the American people, explaining that “The work of the President of the United States continues.” Not much, really, from whoever led the administration’s virus task force.

Another particularly happy moment for Harris cameAffordable Care Act, Barack Obama’s health reform. Speaking of Trump’s efforts to cancel it, Harris looked directly into the room and said, “If you have pre-existing conditions, if you have heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, they will come for you. If you love someone with health problems, they come for you ”. Maybe it was the strongest moment for the Democratic candidate, which was also confident on the issue of the loss of international credibility of the United States. “There is a poll by the prestigious Pew Research Center, he said, that shows that Chinese President Xi Jinping is more appreciated in the world than the President of the United States.” Harris’s appeal to one was not lacking greater racial justice after the cases of Jorge Floyd me Breonna Taylor: “I demonstrated peacefully so that in America it never happens again.” And pride was not lacking claim to be the first black woman in the history of the United States to be part of a presidential ticket. The gender issue then came up in another significant detail. In at least a couple of timesWhen Pence interrupted her, Harris stubbornly replied, “Mr. Vice President, I’m talking. I am talking”.

Harris seemed less effective in Economic problems – which have never been his strong suit. The Democrat, for example, has not been able to explain exactly how Biden’s tax reform will differ from Trump’s. In trouble also appeared in New green deal, a radical environmental investment plan that she supports and that Biden did not own: In particular, Harris was in favor of a ban on fracking that Biden wants to keep. And it was still unclear on the question of possible increase in the number of judges on the Supreme Court, if the Republicans go ahead with Barrett’s nomination. This was, instead, Pence’s true strength, who exalted the qualities of a jurist and a believer in the judge. Very cleverly, the vice president also avoided answering a question about abortion rights. “What would you like your state, Indiana, to decide about abortion?” The interviewer asked. Pence didn’t reply, preferring to sing Barrett’s praise.

L ‘evasion Compared to the more embarrassing questions, it is a well-known characteristic of Pence (Trump also acknowledged: “When asked a question, Mike manages not to answer and talk about something else for five minutes”). The vice president was firm in defending the administration’s results: in the health emergency, in job creation – “after the Obama administration left us in a deep recession” – in defending American interests. abroad (in particular, with the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem). Two moments in his performance were particularly significant: when he refused to define climate change as an “emergency”; and when he avoided saying whether this administration will accept an eventual electoral defeat. “First of all, I think we will win. And then Senator Harris, your party has spent the last three and a half years trying to reverse the outcome of the last election. ” For the rest, Pence has repeated many times unfounded assertions of his president: such as that, by the end of the year, a vaccine will surely arrive.

For a very long minutes a fly kept buzzing and walking on Pence’s very white hair. He, as proof of his cold blood and his ability to control, did not turn around and continued in the debate. Closed at the White House, meanwhile, Trump was compulsively tweeting. “Mike won big,” he wrote. Or again: “You are a bug machine.” A few hours earlier, in a video, the president had said that the disease “was a divine blessing” and that “a cure” had been found for the virus. Obviously that’s not true, but the president desperately needs a more favorable narrative to save his election campaign. The debate between the two deputies yesterday did not provide it.