Pence vs. Harris: Here’s where they may clash
Women’s issues, education may be key
LGBTQ issues, education and abortion are a few topics over which the vice presidential candidates may spar.
WASHINGTON – Vice President Mike Pence was on his way to an Arizona campaign event Tuesday when former Vice President Joe Biden announced he’d chosen Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate.
After taking the stage at a LatterDay Saints for Trump coalition event, Pence noted that the October vice presidential debate will be in Utah, another state with a large Mormon population.
“So my message to the Democrat candidate for vice president?” Pence said. “Congratulations. I’ll see you in Salt Lake City!”
Here are some of the clashes between Pence and Harris that could up come up on the campaign trail:
LGBTQ and women’s issues
Pence occasionally became the target of the large field of Democratic presidential hopefuls in 2019, particularly after Biden described Pence as a “decent guy.” After push back from the LGBTQ community, Biden walked back his comment, saying that “there is nothing decent about being antiLGBTQ rights.”
Harris joined in the condemnation. In a March 2019 MSNBC interview, Harris said: “I disagree with most of what the vice president stands for when he makes decisions about our LGBTQ community in a way that doesn’t understand that they should be entitled to full equality and all rights under the law as any other American.”
Harris also criticized Pence for saying in 2002 that he wouldn’t eat alone with a woman other than his wife and didn’t attend events featuring alcohol unless she was there – although Harris described it differently.
“I disagree with him when he suggests it’s not possible to have meetings with women alone by himself,” she said. “I think that’s ridiculous – the idea that you would deny a professional woman the opportunity to have a meeting with the vice president of the United States is outrageous.”
Pence’s spokeswoman responded at the time that Harris should “get your facts straight.”
“He’s elevated women to positions of leadership throughout his career & relies on their advice & counsel,” Alyssa Farah tweeted.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos
Harris’ first floor speech after joining the Senate in 2017 was an explanation of her opposition to Trump’s choice of Betsy DeVos to run the Education Department.
Harris said DeVos, a champion of private schools, didn’t understand the importance of public school teachers and lacked knowledge about testing and other issues.
“Our country needs a secretary of education who has demonstrated basic competency when it comes to issues facing children,” Harris said. “They just need to know what they’re talking about.”
It was Pence who pushed DeVos’ nomination over the finish line, casting the tie-breaking confirmation vote in his capacity as president of the Senate. It was the first time a vice president had to provide the final vote for a Cabinet nominee.
Pence, who oversaw a huge expansion of Indiana’s voucher program as that state’s governor, called his vote a “high honor.” DeVos had played an influential role in developing Indiana’s largest-in-the-nation private school voucher program.
Ukraine controversy
As House Democrats dug into Trump’s involvement in Ukraine, the matter at the heart of his eventual impeachment, Harris called on Pence to tell Congress what he knew.
“There’s no question that Mike Pence is the vice president who clearly was in the zone of, and in the area of, a lot of what’s been described as extreme misconduct, should testify before the United States Congress,” Harris said in October.
The next month, after diplomat Gordon Sondland testified that “everyone was in the loop,” Harris again said Pence should testify.
“You can’t hide behind ... the president on this,” Harris said. “You can’t prance around talking about being vice president with all the benefits that come with that, and not take the responsibility that comes with that position.”
Pence has disputed the notion that he was in the loop, saying after Sondland’s testimony that he was “not aware of the allegations that U.S. aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations at any point before those matters became public in September.”
Abortion issues
Pence has been the administration’s most prominent opponent of abortion. As he works the campaign trail to maintain the strong support the ticket received from Christian conservatives in 2016, Pence has been attacking Biden for no longer supporting a long-standing law that blocks federal funding for abortion in most cases.
Pence said Tuesday that Biden’s choice of Harris was no surprise because Biden and the Democratic Party “have been overtaken by the radical left” and are promising “higher taxes, open borders, socialized medicine and abortion on demand.”
Harris’ record was immediately criticized by anti-abortion groups. A super PAC that partners with the Susan B. Anthony List announced it’s running TV ads in battleground states “exposing Harris’ extremism on abortion.”
Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the political arm of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said Biden’s choice “made it clear that he is deeply committed to not only protecting reproductive rights but also advancing and expanding them.”