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WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) – Senator Kamala Harris criticized the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic when she opened her debate with Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday (October 7), calling it the biggest failure in the history of the U.S. government.
“The American people have witnessed the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country,” said the California Democrat. “This administration has lost its right to reelection.”
Pence responded gracefully at first, saying it was a “privilege” to share the stage with Harris. But he backed all of President Donald Trump’s response to the virus.
Since February, more than 7 million Americans have been infected, more than 212,000 have died, and last week, the president himself contracted Covid-19.
“From day one, President Donald Trump has put America’s health first,” Pence said.
Biden, he said, opposed Trump’s early decision to limit flights from China, an ultimately unsuccessful effort to keep the virus out of the country. Pence said he bought time to prepare a stronger American response.
He said Biden’s plan to fight the virus “looks a lot like” what the Trump administration has already done.
Harris responded, “Whatever the vice president says the administration has done, it clearly hasn’t worked.”
Pence called that comment “a great disservice” to the sacrifices Americans have made to fight the virus.
When asked by the moderator, Susan Page of USA Today, how the White House can expect Americans to engage in sound public health practices, such as wearing masks, when Trump has not, Pence said that “President Trump and I We trust the American people to make the best decisions in their health. “
She accused Harris of “playing politics with people’s lives” by saying that she would only take a vaccine approved under the Trump administration if advised by medical professionals.
“If Donald Trump tells us to take it, I will not take it,” he said.
The showdown, in Salt Lake City, will be the only debate between Pence and the Democratic candidate to replace him.
Pence and Harris sat about 4 meters apart with a pair of Plexiglass partitions between them as an added precaution against coronavirus infection following Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis.
Both Harris, 55, and Pence, 61, face the challenge of persuading voters that if their septuagenarian bosses cannot finish their terms, they are prepared to enter the Oval Office.
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