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FILE PHOTO: Democratic vice presidential candidate Senator Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, on Sept. 28, 2020. REUTERS / Jonathan Drake
SALT LAKE CITY – President Donald Trump’s battle with COVID-19, his age and the age of his Democratic challenger Joe Biden provide an unusual backdrop for Wednesday’s debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Pence and Harris are ready to take the stage at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City separated by plastic barriers for a 90-minute debate, a reminder of how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the race ahead of the Nov.3 election. .
The Republican president announced last Friday that he had tested positive for the new coronavirus amid an outbreak at the White House and was hospitalized in Maryland for three days receiving a variety of treatments. His doctor said Wednesday that Trump had had no symptoms of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
Pence, 61, or Harris, 55, would be one step away from assuming the presidency, depending on the outcome of the election. The way they handle themselves during the debate can be examined even more closely than usual given Trump’s health and the age of both presidential candidates.
Now 77, Biden would be 78 when he took office in January, making him the oldest president of the United States in history. Trump is 74 years old, making his COVID-19 particularly dangerous considering his age and underlying health issues. Trump is already the oldest president to seek reelection.
Biden leads Trump in national polls, including a 12 percentage point lead in the latest Reuters / Ipsos poll of potential voters. Polls show the race will be tighter in some of the states that could determine the winner, although a Reuters / Ipsos poll on Wednesday showed Biden leading Trump in Florida.
Harris, who will be on the biggest stage of his political career, is a US senator from California who was chosen by Biden in August as his running mate. The daughter of immigrants, her father from Jamaica and her mother from India, Harris is the first black woman to be nominated by a major party for vice president, as well as the first person of Asian descent.
Pence, who debated then-Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine in 2016, is a former US congressman and governor of Indiana who has been a staunch defender of Trump during his tumultuous presidency.
Their debate is unlikely to coincide with the chaos of the first presidential debate last week in which Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden and the two exchanged insults. Pence, more level-headed than Trump, and Harris, a former prosecutor known for his harsh questioning during Senate hearings, are seen as good communicators.
A stronghold
The two campaigns have fought over the installation of barriers on stage between Pence and Harris to protect against coronavirus infection. On Wednesday, television footage from the debate stage showed two Plexiglass barriers, one adjoining each lectern. Pence and Harris will also stand more than 12 feet (3.6 meters) apart on stage.
Harris had requested a Plexiglas shield. Pence spokeswoman Katie Miller mocked Harris Monday, saying that if she “wants to use a fortress around her, go for it.” An aide to the vice president said Wednesday that Pence had accepted the barriers to facilitate debate.
Both Pence and Harris tested negative for the coronavirus on Tuesday. Current U.S. government guidelines require that anyone exposed to a person with COVID-19 be quarantined for 14 days, regardless of test results.
In a statement, Harris spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said: “If the Trump administration’s war on masks has now turned into a war on security shields, that tells you everything you need to know about why his response to COVID is a failure. “
The pandemic is likely to dominate the debate. Biden and Harris have made Trump’s handling of the public health crisis a central theme of their campaign, blaming Trump for downplaying health risks and failing to endorse the use of masks to combat the spread of the pathogen.
Pence, who has headed the administration’s coronavirus task force, can be expected to champion Trump’s response to the pandemic, which has killed more than 210,000 Americans and hit the US economy, even as other wealthy nations have. managed to control it better.
A Biden campaign official said Harris had prepared for Pence to attack her for being too liberal, echoing Trump’s claim that moderate Biden would promote a “radical left” agenda if he were elected president.
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