COVID-19 concerns play key role in VP debate
Plexiglass separates Pence and Harris in their only face-off
SALT LAKE CITY — As the coronavirus sweeps through the upper reaches of government, Republican Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic challenger Kamala Harris faced off Wednesday night in a debate that highlighted the parties’ conflicting visions for a nation in crisis.
The candidates appeared on stage exactly 121⁄ feet apart and
4 separated by plexiglass barriers.
Both candidates released updated coronavirus test results ahead of the debate proving they were negative as of Tuesday.
The prime-time meeting was a chance for voters to decide whether Pence or Harris, a U.S. senator from California, is ready to assume the duties of the presidency before the end of the next term. It’s hardly a theoretical question: President Donald
Trump, 74, is recovering from COVID-19, and Joe Biden, 77, who has not been infected with the coronavirus, would be the oldest president ever.
For those reasons and more, the debate at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City may be the most meaningful vice presidential debate in recent memory.
It came at a precarious moment for the Republicans in particular, with growing concern that Trump’s position is
weakening as more than a dozen senior officials across the White House, the Pentagon and inside his campaign are infected with the virus or in quarantine.
Trailing in polls, Trump and Pence have no time to lose; Election Day is 26 days away, and millions of Americans are already casting ballots.
Before Harris says a word, she will make history by becoming the first Black woman to stand on a vice presidential debate stage.
The night offers her a prime opportunity to energize would-be voters who have shown only modest excitement about Biden, a lifelong politician with a mixed record on race and criminal justice, particularly in his early years in the Senate.
Harris, 55, is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother. She is also a former prosecutor whose pointed questioning of Trump’s appointees and court nominees helped make her a Democratic star.
Pence, 61, is a former Indiana governor and ex-radio host, and an evangelical Christian known for his folksy charm and unwavering loyalty to Trump.
And while he is Trump’s biggest public defender, the vice president does not share the president’s brash tone or undisciplined style.
Last week, Trump set the tone for the opening presidential debate, which was perhaps the ugliest in modern history. Wednesday’s affair was expected to be far more respectful.
Harris advisers say she does not plan to constantly fact-check Pence on stage and will instead spend her time making the case directly to the American people about what a Biden-Harris administration would offer.
“She’s not there to eviscerate Mike Pence,” said Symone Sanders, an adviser who has been in Harris’ debate prep. “She is there to really talk to people at home.”
Harris’ team predicted she would focus on Trump’s yearlong efforts to downplay the pandemic, the fact that many schools are still closed and Trump’s declaration this week that he would end talks on a fresh coronavirus economic relief package until after the election.
Harris will also have the chance to explain her views on law enforcement, an area in which she’s irked some progressives, given her past as a prosecutor.
Meanwhile, Pence aims to highlight the administration’s economic record and attempt to portray the Democratic ticket as beholden to the “radical left,” former GOP Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who is helping the vice president prepare for the debate, said on “Fox & Friends.”
Just as Harris will likely speak directly to Trump at times, Pence is likely to speak at Biden and progressives, who have called for a government run health care system known as “Medicare for All” and sweeping environmental reforms to combat climate change called the “Green New Deal.”
Biden opposes both plans in favor of more moderate steps that would still be among the most significant changes for health care and environmental policy in the modern era.
Pence will be joined in the debate hall by several guests, including the parents of Kayla Mueller, a humanitarian aid worker who was killed in 2015 by Islamic State militants. Their presence is intended to highlight Trump’s record on national security, including the killing of the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
While the debate covered a range of topics, the virus was at the forefront.
Pence serves as chair of the president’s coronavirus task force, which has failed to implement a comprehensive national strategy even as Trump recovers from the disease and the national death toll surges past 211,000 with no end in sight.
Critics suggested that Pence should not be at the debate at all.
The vice president attended an event last week at the White House with Trump and others who have since tested positive, but Pence’s staff and doctors insist he does not need to quarantine under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
The CDC defines risky “close contact” as being within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from two days before the onset of symptoms or a positive test.
While some Democrats have set high expectations for the debate, Harris and her allies have been trying to keep them low.
“We know that Vice President Pence is formidable debater, and we know that tonight is a challenge,” said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. “But all those who know and love Kamala just have a lot of confidence in her.”