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Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Kamala Harris clashed over the coronavirus crisis, the economy and race relations in their only vice-presidential debate in the US election campaign.
Separated by plexiglass barriers, Mr Pence Y Mrs. Harris He began by discussing the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus, a point that highlighted the parties’ sharply conflicting views on a nation in crisis.
“The American people have witnessed the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country,” Harris said as Pence, who leads the president’s task force on coronavirus, shook his head.
Mr. Pence acknowledged that “our nation has been through a very challenging time this year.”
“I want the American people to know, from day one, that President Trump has put America’s health first,” Pence said, promising millions of doses of a treatment yet to be announced before the end of the year. .
Speaking directly to the camera, as Biden did in his chaotic first debate with President Donald Trump, Harris said of the administration: “They knew what was happening and they didn’t tell you.”
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In response, Pence praised Trump’s decision to cut off travel from China, saying the decision “gave us invaluable time” to coordinate the country’s response to the pandemic, even though Trump’s move only cut off some travel from China and dozens of thousands. of people were still allowed to enter the country.
More than 210,000 Americans have died during the pandemic. Trump is recovering in the White House from his own infection.
On the economy, Pence said Donald Trump “cut taxes across the board” when he became president, while Joe Biden “will raise taxes” on his first day in the Oval Office.
He said the Democrat “will bury our economy under a new $ 2 trillion green deal” and “wants to return to economic surrender to China.”
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Kamala Harris said the debate on this issue should be based on “facts,” and told Pence that Biden has been “very clear” that he will not raise taxes on anyone who makes less than $ 400,000.
He claimed that Trump “rode the coattails” of the economic boom seen under Barack Obama.
On race relations, Ms. Harris said she does not believe justice has been served for the death of black woman Breonna Taylor.
Ms. Taylor was shot multiple times in March after police woke her up at her door while conducting a drug bust. A grand jury did not indict any officers for their role in Taylor’s death.
Addressing criminal justice reform, Ms. Harris said a Joe Biden administration would outlaw strangulation and require a national registry for police officers who violated the law. He said George Floyd, whose death in police custody sparked Black Lives Matter protests around the world, would be alive if such a ban existed.
The event was the only vice presidential debate before next month’s elections.
When asked if justice was served in the Taylor case, Mr. Pence said Ms. Taylor’s family “has our sympathies, but I trust our justice system, a grand jury that reviews the evidence.”
The couple also faced Amy Coney Barrett, the choice of Donald Trump for the vacant seat on the United States Supreme Court.
Assuming that it is confirmed that he will fill the vacancy in the bank created by Ruth Bader GinsburgUpon her death, she will tip her political balance to the right, as one of six conservative judges against three liberals.
Mr. Pence says that Ms. Barrett is a “brilliant woman” who will bring a lifetime of experience and “a considerable American family” to the highest court in the nation.
Pence and Harris were asked how their respective states of Indiana and California should handle abortion if the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v Wade decision, the lawsuit that resulted in the 1973 case that established a woman’s right to abortion. .
The vice president, a former Indiana governor and opponent of abortion, warned against attacks on Ms. Barrett’s Roman Catholic faith and mentioned her large family of seven children.
Pence says he would not presume to say how Ms. Barrett would vote on Roe. But as a candidate in 2016, Pence used to tell conservative crowds that President Trump would appoint justices who would send Roe to the “dustbin of history.”
Harris said it was “insulting” to suggest that she and Biden would attack anyone for their faith.
He noted that Biden is Catholic and criticized Republicans for rushing to confirm Barrett.
He added that “he would always fight for a woman’s right to make a decision about her own body.”
