The fact that President Trump was hospitalized with coronavirus took this week’s Vice President’s debate to an extraordinary degree, putting pressure on Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris to use this platform to reassure a willing restless people that they deserve action. As president
Mr. Trump’s diagnosis with a potentially deadly virus – and the fact that he is 74 and his Democratic rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr., 77 – was quite a reminder that either Mr. Pence or Mrs. Harris could be president. Only in opposition to the leading contenders for the 2024 and above nominations.
For Mr. Pence, Wednesday’s discussion will probably make him a now.4. Protected will force millions of Americans to account for the administration’s record of infecting the virus – including the country’s safest person, Mr. Trump – and the Federal Coronavirus Task Force’s response to his presidency. Former Plaintiff Ms. For Harris, the debate is an opportunity to show that he is capable of becoming president in a national crisis, as well as to show that he can challenge the Trump record on Covid-19, without feeling overly aggressive against anyone. Sick president
Depending on how quickly Mr. Trump improves his condition The remaining two discussions between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden may be forced to cancel. If that happens, the 90-minute session on Wednesday will be the last chance to discuss this presidential election season and order a wider audience for both parties.
That could be particularly significant for Mr. Trump, whose reckless debate demonstrations turned voters against him in some key states last week.
Raphael J., executive director of the Patt Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. Sonshen said the discussion between the two couples in any other year would be a bit more than a “political successor”. Wednesday’s vice-presidential match in Salt Lake City will be clearly different, he said, “given the age and vulnerability of the candidates.”
Mr Sonshen, who was on the questionnaire committee for Mrs. Harris’s 201st Senate debate, said the vice president’s debate could only be one thing.
Exposure to the White House, where new positive tests are coming in the day, has raised some questions about whether Mr. Pence should participate at all. “He was sitting in a sea of people with Kovid,” said Dr. Harvard University’s infectious disease specialist. Said Rochelle Walensky. “There’s no way he should go anywhere.”
Mr. Trump’s senior adviser, Jason Miller, rejected Mr. Pence’s suggestion that the discussion should be abandoned, which is scheduled to take place at the University of Utah. Mr. Pence has tested negative for coronavirus so far, and both candidates will be 12 feet apart, a seven-foot increase from what was originally proposed.
“I have no worries,” Mr. Miller said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” while discussing the safety of Mr. Pence’s participation in the debate. “We are in a campaign. We have a month to go. We have seen Joe Biden and Kamala Harris preaching there. ”
The vice-presidential race in the presidential election is rarely certain, especially the impact of Mr. Trump’s presence on the ballot. But the debate is taking place amid a crisis: a president hospitalized by a virus that has already killed more than 200,000 Americans, and the severity of his illness, its prognosis and when – or – if it is – able to return to the campaign trail. Will be. Elections are now a month away.
Mr. Trump has outperformed Mr. Biden in the polls since the beginning of the summer, highlighting the importance of such public events.
Mr. Pence and Ms. Harris has so far been eclipsed by the rivalry between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden. But it seems that for the time being, Mr. Pence will be the face of the campaign, while away from the eyes of those who hold its standard.
Mr. Pence, who is standing up for Mr. Trump, could work for the benefit of Democrats, according to Jennifer Palmieri, the 2016 Democratic candidate, a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton, and a coach for Virginia Senator Tim Cain. , For the 2016 Vice President discussion.
“It’s so hard to get a clean shot delivering a direct message for a Biden-Harris ticket, because Trump takes so much oxygen.” “They have to make the most of every opportunity.”
Mr. Pence has some advantages. After four years on Mr. Trump’s side, he has a close experience of key policy and political challenges, particularly on viruses and the economy to face on Wednesday. And Mr. Pence went through such a debate in 2016, where he checked all the checked boxes of the effective No. 2 candidate: he was a staunch defender of Mr. Trump and a constant assailant of Mrs. Clinton.
In contrast, Ms. Harris has only been in Washington Washington since 2017, and has served as a Democrat in the Republican-controlled Senate. She appeared in the debate while running for senator and attorney general from California – small-scale cases against opponents with less ambition and talent than Mr. Pence.
For Mr. Pence, this is a very different field from what he explored in 2016. Mr. Trump is surrounded by questions about handling his Covid-19 crisis and the extent to which his own behavior is dangerous to himself and others, and now the epidemic has spread to the White House and some Republican circles.
“It was a square at the table in the presidential debate, and it will be a square at the table in the vice-presidential debate, because it’s in everyone’s mind.” Mr. Cain said in an interview. “Because Pence was asked to take the lead. And now because the president – who weakened all science in every way and said it was a scam or not a big problem – is now diagnosed. “
Mr. Ponce will have the added burden of making the most of these moments, with many polls reducing the chances of Mr. Biden leading and changing the pace of the race.
Mr. Pence, 61, is a former governor of Indiana and served in Congress for 12 years. Ms. Harris, 55, served as California’s attorney general and San Francisco district attorney before being elected to the Senate.
Both bring clearly different styles to this discussion. Mr. Pence, in his session with Mr. Cain and during previous discussions when he ran for governor of Indiana, proved to be a calm and disciplined man, difficult to shake and, given his easy bearing, he was adept at advancing aggression. .
“There’s a reason people question Hillary Clinton’s credibility,” Mr. Payne said in his controversial discussion with Mr. Cain (at least by 2016 standards).
He speaks quickly, barely leaving a space between the sentences of an opponent to jump. “She’s a very consistent, simple, regular debtor,” said John de Podesta, who was Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chair in 2016. A radio host taught them to be well prepared. In this debate he will become anti-Trump. It will be the opposite of what you saw last Tuesday. ”
“He will come to you,” said Mr. Podesta. “She is OK. It can attack. It will be very modulated, silky. “
Mrs. Harris has proved to be an intense and effective interlocutor as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Among other officers, Attorney General William P. Twelve, with her aggressive interrogation he increased his share with the Democrats.
In a discussion, he can be sarcastic and methodical, looking at the lecturer scribbling notes, while waiting for his turn to speak, before becoming aggressive.
“Steve, I don’t think you should really go down in this discussion or the pride of the office fees we ask for,” Ms. Harris said she failed to get a death sentence in a murder case as a San Francisco district attorney when the Los Angeles district attorney and her opponents were accused in the 2010 race for California attorney general.
Mr Cooley recalled in an interview his meeting in 2010 that “she would be ready with specific, tested statements or lines.” He said he showed up in the Democratic debate when Mr. Harris attacked Mr. Biden for his record. Protesting on the bus.
“She would be a good script,” he said. “I don’t think she would do that even if she came into a field that wasn’t well scripted.”
Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders, called him a strong debater. She said, “Because of her plaintiff background, she’s someone who is as good at mastering the presentation as you do in the courtroom.”
“It’s better in crime,” Mr. Weaver added. “When he’s on offense, he gets better points than defense.”
Even before Mr. Trump was admitted to the hospital, Ms. Harris said the vice president’s discussion is fundamentally different from the primary contest because he has not only his own record, but Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump, and Mr. Trump. Pence.
The Trump campaign has long been to field Mr. Biden as a stand-in for the “radical left.” Seeking to encourage Harris, who will be the first black woman to serve as vice president as a real authority in Biden White. Home.
Republican voter Neil Newhouse said the debate would draw the attention of both candidates. But in such an extraordinary claim campaign, he said the question defined for voters would be whether Mr. Trump deserves a second term.
“There’s a lot of stuff going on every day and every week right now, I think the vice-president’s debate is going to be forgotten until election day fills up,” he said.
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