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After a week that put an exclamation point on the recklessness of the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, Vice President Mike Pence is ready to defend the White House Wednesday night in his first and only televised debate with him. Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala. Harris.
As head of the White House pandemic task force, Pence appeared to have a lot of work ahead of him, and polls indicate that most Americans have lost faith in Donald Trump’s ability to confront and control the virus, and They blame the US government for mishandling that.
To counter that view, Pence will have to explain how the virus was allowed to sweep through the White House, Congress, and Republican donor circles last week, hospitalizing the president and exposing a growing number of Secret Service personnel and military personnel to Covid-19. .
Pence was among the deepest within the infection zone, although his office says he and his wife, Karen Pence, remain virus-free.
Perhaps most overwhelming of all, for Pence: he will have to present his case against Harris, who has made a name for himself by harsh questioning in public settings of powerful men, from Attorney General William Barr to Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh. .
“It’s going to be a tough night for Mike Pence,” said Karthik Ganapathy, a progressive political communications strategist for MVMT. “In many ways, this outbreak is a metaphor for the Trump administration’s handling of the virus at large.
And Mike Pence will be in a position to have to defend that from Senator Harris, who I think is going to make a pretty clear and thoughtful case that illustrates what we’ve seen in the White House last week, in many ways, the need to a different kind of leadership. “
In a historic landmark, Harris, the former California attorney general, will take the stage as the first woman of color in a major party presidential bid. Her main challenge, political analysts say, will be to keep the event focused on Pence and the failings of the Trump administration, and not do anything to alter the seemingly strong lead that she and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden enjoy in the race.
With Trump, 74, convalescing in the White House after testing positive for coronavirus, and Democrats eager to protect the health of Biden, 77, who debated Trump just a week ago, the elephant on stage will be the fact that Pence or Harris. he could foreseeably rise to the presidency in the next four years.
The debate “will be the most important of its kind since the vice president debates began 40 years ago,” wrote John Hudak, deputy director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. “Americans will be watching the vice president debate with a renewed awareness that one of those two people could easily become president, not because they ran for office but because they succeeded.”
In a nod to the extraordinary health precautions the event calls for, and in a possible preview of the crash to unfold on stage, the two sides exchanged fire prior to the event on appropriate safety measures.
The Biden / Harris camp demanded more space between the candidates and a shield to separate them. A Pence spokesperson scoffed that “if Senator Harris wants to use a fortress around her, do it.”
The guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would not recommend that candidates be separated by a shield, but rather Pence, who in the last week has spent significant time in closed spaces with known cases of Covid -19, not showing up at all, quarantining himself for two weeks.
A letter published Tuesday by a Pence doctor, Jesse Schönau, ignored that advice.
“Vice President Mike Pence is not in close contact with anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19,” the letter read, sidestepping the question of who Pence was in contact with in the recent past.
A group of female Democratic leaders raised a protest What they said about was the Trump administration’s oversight of the virus, demanding that Pence provide confirmation of a negative coronavirus test, after Trump skipped his own pre-debate coronavirus test last week.
The debate committee announced that a Plexiglas shield would separate the candidates and that anyone not wearing a mask would be escorted out of the room.
A former adviser to Barack Obama, Tommy Vietor, had simple advice for Harris. “Do not do it!” Vietor said on his podcast Monday. Mike Pence is not sure. Mike Pence could come with Covid tomorrow. It’s crazy for me. Madness. I would not be participating in the debate this week. “
The debate is scheduled to take place at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City at 9 pm ET and moderated by Susan Page, USA Today’s Washington Bureau Chief. The university has implemented a lottery system to invite fewer than 100 students as guests, who will sit in the hallway at a distance from each other and wearing masks.
In their respective debate preparations this week, Harris and Pence have faced alternates. Former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg debated Harris as Pence, while former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi debated Pence as Harris.
While Pence’s exit from the 2016 debate against Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine, is all but forgotten, there is the possibility of fireworks going off in his confrontation with Harris.
Harris, a former prosecutor, has a reputation as a member of the Senate judicial committee for the methodical and ominous questioning of hostile witnesses, including Attorney General Barr, whom Harris lobbied last year about his politically motivated investigations.
“Has the president or anyone in the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation into someone?” Harris asked, while Barr groped. “It seems like you would remember something like that.”
While the coronavirus pandemic has dominated the political dialogue in the final weeks of the campaign, Harris could also criticize Pence for the Trump administration’s stance on the climate emergency, racial justice and criminal justice, Ganapathy said.
“I hope Senator Harris does not fall into the trap of arguing about who is better at providing public order,” he said.
“It is a trap set by a campaign that wants to send racist whistles for dogs.”
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