PENCE AND HARRIS SPAR OVER COVID-19 AND FOREIGN POLICY
▶ Candidate for vice president calls virus response greatest failure of any US administration
US Vice President Mike Pence and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, separated by Plexiglas, squared off in a debate on Wednesday evening, only weeks before the November 3 general election.
Ms Harris opened the debate with a critique of the TrumpPence administration’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic.
“This is the greatest failure of any administration in the history of our country,” she said.
“They knew and they covered it up. The president called it a hoax.”
Mr Pence insisted the president had “put the health of America first”, and praised President Donald Trump’s decision to halt flights from China.
He slammed Ms Harris for questioning whether a vaccine released by the Trump administration could be trusted.
“The fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine, if the vaccine emerges during the Trump administration, I think is unconscionable,” Mr Pence said.
While the candidates offered pointed jabs throughout the night, the event was notably tamer and more disciplined than the presidential debate last week.
Interruptions in the vice presidential debate were sparse, but a number of fiery exchanges took place.
Ms Harris’s sharp and sceptical glances at Mr Pence caught the attention of social media users.
A heated exchange began when Ms Harris slammed the Trump administration’s foreign policy as being unilateral and focused on isolation.
She said the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal meant Washington was “in a position where we are less safe because they are building up what might end up being a significant nuclear arsenal”.
Ms Harris also said the president played down the brain damage that US soldiers suffered as a result of retaliatory strikes on American troops in Iraq after the killing of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani.
The case of Kayla Mueller, a US humanitarian worker who was kidnapped by ISIS in 2013 and killed two years later, was highlighted during the debate.
Mr Pence said her parents, who were at the debate, believed Mueller would be alive
had Mr Trump handled her case, and blasted the Obama and Biden administration for failing to save her. The Obama administration had vowed not to negotiate with terrorists, but it did make attempts to rescue Mueller.
There was a backlash when Mr Trump did not condemn white supremacist groups during last week’s debate.
But Mr Pence said both he and the president denounced white supremacists.
He repeated the Republican Party’s support for law enforcement, calling the summer protests against racial injustice in the US a great insult to police officers.
Ms Harris spoke of her long history as a prosecutor, and said: “I will not sit here and be lectured by the vice president on what it means to enforce the laws of our country.
“I know what I’m talking about: bad cops are bad for good cops. We need reform.”
One of the most heated exchanges of the night occurred over the US Supreme Court. Mr Pence accused Democrats of attempting to pack the court with more judges.
Ms Harris reacted by noting that “of the 50 people who
President Trump appointed to the Court of Appeals for lifetime appointments, not one is black”.
Mr Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett to fill the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Mr Pence condemned attacks from Democrats on Ms Barrett’s religious views.
Ms Harris replied that “it’s insulting to suggest we would knock anyone for their faith”.
She said that Republicans hoped to use the courts to strike down the Affordable Care Act introduced by the Obama administration during
a time when the country is experiencing a health crisis.
Ms Harris said Republicans appointing a new justice during an election year was unacceptable.
Brookings Institution senior fellow John Hudak described the debate in Utah as “the most important vice presidential debate in American history”.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, continued his all- out verbal offensive against his opponent, calling Mr Biden “a wacko” in a stream of angry tweets posted after he left hospital on Monday.
The president is performing poorly in polls asking voters who they will support in November’s election.
White House doctors say Mr Trump is recovering rapidly.
After urging Americans to stop fearing Covid- 19 and, telling them “don’t let it dominate you”, he attacked the media for not paying more attention to what he said were his many successes.
Mr Trump and Mr Biden are scheduled to square off again on October 15, but the former vice president believes “if he [Mr Trump] still has Covid, we shouldn’t have a debate”.