United States Vice President Mike Pence is expected to come under severe scrutiny from his Democratic rival Kamala Harris when the two meet in a much-anticipated debate in Salt Lake City, Utah later tonight.
The head-to-head match-up comes in the wake of President Donald Trump’s positive COVID-19 diagnosis that has ravaged a growing list of people in or linked to the White House while Pence has been leading the president’s coronavirus task force.
And while Vice President debates are generally regarded as second-tier acts to the main show at the top of the ticket, the level of interest in Wednesday’s political moment is unlike any other.
Issues on the table
Perhaps it was the chaotic first Presidential debate that lacked substance, characterised by a president who ran roughshod over everyone; or the 210 000 Americans who have perished from COVID-19 and the economic peril it has wrought; or the beckoning Supreme Court fight to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or ongoing conversations about race and justice in America – it’s all on the table.
The presidential participants constantly interrupted each other during the debate:
“So when we look at this election, there are some very clear differences. Donald Trump will never use the term Black Lives Matter. He will never say that. He will never say it. Why do you think they are trying to suppress and to make it difficult or to confuse black people around voting? And the answer is simple because they know when we vote, things change. They know when we vote, we are powerful,” says Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris.
Coronavirus
At least 20 people associated with President Trump have tested positive, the latest is senior advisor Stephen Miller whose wife Katie is Mike Pence’s Communications Director. She has since departed the debate venue as a precaution.
“As the president likes to say, this is an all-hands-on-deck effort and we’ll continue to bring the full resources of the federal government to support your efforts in the Seattle area and across the state of Washington. And we’ll get through this.”
But getting through it they have not, at least not yet, with 40 000 new cases and 361 deaths in just the last 24 hours as the Commission on Presidential Debates approved the use of plexiglass as an extra preventive measure between debaters given the high risk posed by the Vice President’s team.
“When the president told me he was headed back to the White House, he told me to head to Utah and we’re looking very much forward to the vice presidential debate. The stakes in this election have never been higher. The choice has never been clear. And I look forward to the opportunity to take our case to the American people for four more years for President Donald Trump in the White House,” says Pence.
Election poll
The latest polling shows a massive deficit for the Trump-Pence ticket to make up against Biden-Harris – with the California Senator expected to press their advantage, particularly around healthcare amidst a pandemic.
“Complications from COVID-19, like lung scarring and heart damage, could well become the next preexisting condition (under health insurance policies). In short, there are few things they (Trump, the Republicans, and Judge Barrett) could do that would be more offensive to the legacy and the life of Justice (Ruth Bader) Ginsburg than to return us to the full-scale policies of discrimination in healthcare toward the women of our country. But that’s what overturning the Affordable Care Act will do. And overturning the Affordable Care Act is a way a (Supreme Court) nominee gets the support of this president and his party,” says Harris.
Kamala Harris will also become only the third woman to appear in a Vice President Debate in the 44 years since this format was initiated in 1976, the other Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Sarah Palin in 2008. But she is the first Black and South Asian American to have accomplished that feat.
History aside, this will be a debate on substance with a Republican opponent who has one job, to reframe their fledgling campaign and regain some of the ascendancy in this race, a mere 27 days from Election Day.
