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WHITE PLAINS (VG) With Plexiglas in between, there was a much more civil debate between vice presidential candidates Mike Pence (61) and Kamala Harris (55) than was the case last week when Donald Trump and Joe Biden met at the ” debate ring “.
Regardless of who wins the election in four weeks, the person sworn in on January 20 of next year will be the oldest person to start a presidential term in the United States. Donald Trump will be 74 years old, while Joe Biden will be 78 years old.
That makes the US media refer to tonight’s debate between incumbent Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris as the most important vice-presidential debate in history.
In 90 minutes, the two were on nine topics, none published in advance. The debate in Salt Lake City, Utah, was led by USA Todays Susan Page, usually the head of the newspaper’s Washington, DC bureau.
These were some of the highlights, which you can read more about below the article:
- Harris on the crown: – They knew what was going on, but they didn’t inform you
- Pence on the economy: – Biden will raise taxes
- Harris on climate change: – They don’t believe in science
- Pence on Harris: – You put your radical agenda ahead of American jobs
- Harris on international affairs: – Trump has betrayed our friends
- Pence on Biden’s Supreme Court plans: – People deserve an honest answer
- Harris oom Trump and the far right: – A pattern in Trump
- Pence on Elections: – Huge Opportunities for Voter Fraud
IN UTAH: Tonight’s debate took place at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Photo: ERIC WESTAT / AFP
Coronaviruset
The first question was for Harris and it was about the coronavirus. He was asked how the Biden administration would handle the pandemic.
The American people have witnessed the greatest failure of the presidential administration in the history of this country. They knew what was going on, but they didn’t inform you. They knew it, but they covered it up, Harris said, adding:
– They don’t have a plan yet. Joe Biden has it. We want to make sure there is a free vaccine for everyone.
Did you bring it with you? Flue stole the show
Pence, for his part, said Trump has done everything he can to combat the virus, noting, among other things, that they introduced an entry ban from China. The fact is, there was never a complete entry ban and tens of thousands flew from China to the United States after this.
– We will have tens of millions of vaccines before the end of the year, he continued.
– No matter what the vice president says they have done, it clearly has not worked when you look at the fact that more than 210,000 Americans have died, responded Harris, who pointed out that it is precisely Pence who has led the crown work in the Trump administration.
Moderator Susan Page then asked Pence how the American people can be expected to follow the administration’s advice to prevent infection when a major outbreak has been seen in the White House, indicating a lack of control in the own house.
“The reality is that the President trusts the American people to make decisions that are in the best interest of their health,” replied Pence, who also said that people have shown that they are willing to put the health of their families and neighbors first.
Health transparency
Page wanted to know if Pence believes that Americans have a right to know the health of a president and noted that there has been little misleading information about Trump since he fell ill from the crown.
“The American people have a right to know how things are going,” said Pence, who said he believes the administration has been very open about how things are going with the president.
Harris was asked the same question.
– Absolutely. But not only in health matters. Also when it comes to taxes. We now know that Donald Trump only paid $ 750 in income taxes a year. When I first heard that, I thought it meant $ 750,000, he replied, among other things.
Pence responded by saying that Trump has paid tens of millions in taxes.
Pence: – Biden will raise taxes
The next topic was the economy. Kamala Harris went straight to the neck of Trump’s tax policy, which he says has only served the rich.
“Joe Biden believes that the US economy is measured by the performance of workers and families,” he said, adding that Trump is only concerned with those who already have more.
Pence, for his part, warned against what he believes will be high taxes for Americans with Biden as president.
The United States just heard Harris say that Biden wants to raise taxes. Which is quite surprising right after a pandemic that caused us to lose 22 million jobs. We have already received 11.6 million of them.
Harris denied that Biden would raise taxes for anyone making less than $ 400,000 a year.
– Don’t believe in science
After the economy, the topic was climate change. Here, Pence repeated what Trump said in his debate against Biden last week that it was okay to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, because it led to the loss of American jobs.
“By all estimates, our air and our land are cleaner than ever,” Pence said.
Harris attacked the Trump administration for cutting back on a series of climate measures started by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
“They don’t believe in science,” said Harris, who called climate change an existential threat.
Pence was asked if he views climate change in the same way, as an existential threat. He never answered the question, but was concerned that the United States would not need to spend large sums of money on a “Green New Deal.”
– It will cost the country jobs.
– You put your radical agenda ahead of American jobs
Moderator Susan Page finally passed the topic on to China. Mike Pence started by attacking Harris from the left.
“You put your radical agenda ahead of American jobs,” said Pence, who claimed that Harris was more liberal than any other senator, including Bernie Sanders, said Pence, who also mentioned that the coronavirus originated in China.
– The president has stood up to China and will continue to do so. They must be held accountable for what they have done to the United States with the coronavirus, the vice president said.
Kamala Harris used her time, among other things, to say that the Trump administration’s trade war with China has cost many US jobs and raised the prices of many products.
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Biden to Trump: – You can shut up, man!
– Trump has betrayed our friends
The senator also referred to the relations of the United States with other countries of the world.
– You have to be loyal to your friends. And you have to keep your opponents at a distance. But what we’ve seen with Trump is that he betrayed our friends and embraced the world’s dictators, Harris said.
Pence used this segment to say that under the leadership of Donald Trump, the ISIS caliphate was defeated and that Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran deal.
“America is safer and our allies are safer,” Pence said.
Harris then attacked Trump for failing to reach a deal with Russia after paying the Taliban to attack US forces in Afghanistan.
“Joe Biden had done that,” Harris said.
When Pence had no more time from the moderator to respond to Harris’s attack, because he had already spent his time in this segment, for the first time he got a bit noisy in this debate, which seemed much more civilized than last week’s debate, which among other things, VG referred to as a “shit show”, because there were constant interruptions and discussions about who should have the floor:
Did not answer questions about abortion
The issue that followed was the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett as the new Supreme Court Justice. Mike Pence boasted of the candidate:
– I hope it will be treated with respect at the hearing and voted on in the Supreme Court.
He did not respond to the moderator’s question about whether he wants his home state of Indiana to ban all abortions if the Supreme Court reverses the decision that once opened legal abortion in the United States.
Kamala Harris responded this way to what she thinks her home state of California should do if the Supreme Court reverses the 1973 abortion decision:
– I will always fight for a woman to have control of her own body.
However, when Pence spoke again, he partially answered the question:
“I am proud to be ‘pro-life,'” Pence said.
– People deserve an honest answer
Kamala Harris used the Supreme Court theme to repeat the Democrats’ mantra that a new judge should not be appointed so close to an election, but that voters should be able to decide by first choosing a president, who then appoints the judge.
As it happened in 2016, when the Republicans in the Senate prevented Barack Obama from nominating their candidate for the Supreme Court, even though it happened 11 months before the election, and not just a few weeks before.
Mike Pence came up with this answer:
– Those who vote now will know if you and Biden want to expand the Supreme Court. The American people deserve an honest answer. And the honest answer is that Harris and Biden will expand the Supreme Court, Pence said.
Harris neither confirmed nor denied Pence’s claim, which he also noted.
– A pattern in Trump
The penultimate topic of the evening was on racism in the police and riots in the wake of several episodes of police violence this year.
Harris then, among other things, addressed how Donald Trump in the Joe Biden debate last week did not clearly and clearly distance himself from white nationalists.
– This is part of a pattern with Donald Trump, Harris said and referred to several examples, including when in 2017 he marched through the streets of Charlottesville and shouted slogans against, say, Jews, and the president later said it was’ good people on both sides. “
Pence, for his part, believed that Harris only spoke a selected “truth” and noted, among other things, that Trump has distanced himself from the Ku Klux Klan.
– And this is a man who has Jewish grandchildren, he also said.
“Great opportunities for electoral fraud”
The debate ended with a discussion on whether the candidates will accept the election result. Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he will not do it without more, because he believes that Joe Biden can only win if there is widespread electoral fraud.
“It’s clear that Trump doesn’t think he can run on the basis of what he’s accomplished,” Harris said.
Pence was asked what his role will be if Trump does not accept an election result in which Biden is declared the winner.
– First of all, I think we will win this election, Pence said, and ran through a boastful list of what he thinks they have accomplished during their nearly four years in the White House.
– When it comes to accepting the election, I must say that your party’s senator (Harris journal, note) has not accepted the previous election for 3.5 years, said Pence, who thought that the Supreme Court case against the president was proof of it. .
Pence also said he feared postal votes would open up “massive opportunities for voter fraud,” but said nothing about how he would handle the situation if Trump did not accept the result.
