2020 Presidential Debates: Part 2 (Vice Presidential Debate)

October 30, 2020 / Source: The Bizz USA
By Elizabeth Insuasti; Edited by Haarika Kalahasti

The vice-presidential debate between Vice President Pence and Senator Kamala D. Harris was held at Kingsbury Hall at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Wednesday October 7, 2020 at 9pm EST. It ran uninterrupted for an hour and a half. The vice-presidential debate was moderated by Susan Page, USA Today’s Washington bureau chief. 

Although it marked a return to a more traditional affair and wasn't likely to change many voters' minds or shift the trajectory of the race, it showed sharp contrasts between the two parties' agendas for the economy, health care and more. There was far less interrupting, angry cross-talk and fewer personal attacks than in the first presidential debate.

From the outset of the debate, the pandemic was center stage. Spectators were warned not to remove their masks. The candidates sat at desks more than 12 feet apart and separated by plexiglass shields. It also happened to be the first topic. Both candidates frequently sidestepped questions altogether.

Pence didn't answer how a Trump-Pence administration would protect pre-existing conditions if the Affordable Care Act is struck down by the Supreme Court. He also didn't explain what he would do if the president didn't accept the election results or agree to a peaceful transition of power.

Harris refused to answer a question posed by both the moderator and Pence about whether she backed what many liberal activists are pushing: adding justices to the Supreme Court — court packing. Biden also dodged the same question in the first debate.

Both also evaded a question about what they thought states should do if the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, which would leave the states to write abortion laws.

Pence's debate style is almost the polar opposite of the president's. He was calm and disciplined and came prepared to paint the Biden-Harris ticket as captive to the extreme left of the Democratic Party, specifically on economic issues. In several exchanges, Harris sidestepped directly, answering questions from the moderator and instead shifted the conversation to Trump.

Notable Quotes and Moments:

• Harris seized on the Democratic ticket's central argument that the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus was "the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country." She accused the president of covering up information about the virus when he was briefed in January by his national security team, and she argued that Trump still didn't have a plan to combat the disease.

 

• Pence defended the president's record and pointed to Trump's decision to restrict travel from China at the end of January as evidence that he took the threat seriously. He noted that the Biden-Harris team's plan to address the coronavirus with testing and the development of a vaccine mirrored actions the administration has already taken. "It looks a little bit like plagiarism," Pence said. He also attempted to portray Harris' criticism of the administration's response as an attack on the sacrifices Americans have made during the crisis.

 

• Harris said she would take a vaccine approved by medical professionals, but "if Donald  Trump tells us that we should take it, I'm not taking it."

• Harris pushed back, calling out Pence when he started to step on her answers or take away from her time. She retorted, "Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking" .

 

• Harris used a question about the Breonna Taylor case in Kentucky to remind the audience of one stunning moment in the Biden-Trump debate, when the president declined to denounce white supremacists.

 

• Enormous attention was given to health precautions, ventilation systems and testing of attendees at the debate site. But the appearance of one insect was a scenario no one prepared for, and it was hard to ignore. Shortly after the debate ended, the Biden campaign posted an ad for a branded fly swatter.

 

• Harris spent a good portion of the debate looking straight at the camera when answering questions, while Pence mostly trained his responses at Page or his opponent. The effect was that Harris frequently looked like she was speaking directly to viewers at home. It was an approach Biden said he turned to out of necessity in the first presidential debate after Trump repeatedly interrupted him.

 

• When asked whether Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed by police in her Louisville home, received justice, Pence offered sympathies to her family. But he said he trusted that justice had been served in her case.
  • “It really is remarkable that, as a former prosecutor, you would assume that an impaneled grand jury, looking at all the evidence, got it wrong,” Pence said.
  • The vice president then segued to attacking the riots and violence that broke out in some cities amid otherwise peaceful protests against racial injustice. Pence told Harris it was an “insult” that she and Biden discuss implicit bias against African Americans.

• “This presumption that you hear consistently from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that America is systemically racist,” Pence said, “that he believes that law enforcement has an implicit bias against minorities, is a great insult to the men and women who serve in law enforcement.”

 

• Pence initially declined to respond when asked what states should do if Roe v. Wade is overturned, instead turning the query into a defense of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
  • “She’s a brilliant woman and she will bring a lifetime of experience and a sizable American family to the Supreme Court of the United States,” Pence said. “And our hope is in the hearing next week, unlike Justice Kavanaugh received with treatment from you and others, we hope she gets a fair hearing.” He also criticized Democrats for “attacks on her Christian faith,” which Harris objected to.
  • “Joe Biden and I are both people of faith,” Harris said. “And it’s insulting to suggest that we would knock anyone for their faith. And in fact, Joe, if elected, will be only the second practicing Catholic as president of the United States.” She said that the Supreme Court vacancy is crucial for a host of issues, including abortion rights. "There’s the issue of choice. And I will always fight for a woman’s right to make a decision about her own body,” Harris said. “It should be her decision and not that of Donald Trump and Michael Pence.”
  • “I couldn’t be more proud to serve as vice president to a president who stands without apology for the sanctity of human life,” he said. “I’m pro-life. I don’t apologize for it.” “I would never presume how Judge Amy Coney Barrett would rule on the Supreme Court of the United States,” he added. “But we’ll continue to stand strong for the right to life.”

 

• Healthcare: “Literally in the midst of a public health pandemic, where more than 210,000 people have died,” Harris said during the debate, “Donald Trump is in court right now trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, and I’ve said it before and it bears repeating, this means that there will be no more protections for people with preexisting conditions.”

 

• When moderator Susan Page asked Pence to explain how the Trump administration would protect people with preexisting conditions, Pence falsely claimed that Biden and Harris support abortion “up to the moment of birth” and did not mention anything related to pre-existing conditions.

 

• Harris would not answer the question of whether Democrats will try to add seats to the Supreme Court, just as Biden refused last week. She tried to shift the subject, saying that the Trump administration was “packing” lower courts and has failed to tap a Black nominee among 50 judges for the appeals courts.

 

• Harris attacked Trump for straining relationships with foreign allies, failing to stand up to dictators, and backing out of international deals negotiated by the Obama administration.
  • Harris pointed specifically to Trump’s failure to stand up to Russia over its interference in U.S. elections and his decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.
  • Pence defended Trump’s actions in foreign policy by focusing on the destruction of ISIS and blaming Obama and former vice president Joe Biden for the death of Kayla Mueller, an American who was held captive and killed by ISIS and whose parents were in the audience as guests of the vice president.

 

• “Senator Harris is denying the fact that they’re going to raise taxes on every American.” — Vice President Michael Pence

 

• Pence blamed China for the coronavirus, while Harris blamed the Trump administration’s policies on China for lost American lives. “China is to blame for the coronavirus, and President Trump is not happy about it,” Pence said. “He’s made that very clear.” He blamed China for not letting American personnel into the country to gather information about the coronavirus.
  • “The Trump administration’s perspective and approach to China has resulted in the loss of American lives, American jobs and America’s standing,” Harris clapped back. “There is a weird obsession that President Trump has had with getting rid of whatever accomplishment was achieved by President Obama and Vice President Biden.”

 

• Pence acknowledged that climate change is real, but questioned the reasons and further questioned the cost of addressing the effects of climate change. “The climate is changing. We’ll follow the science,” Pence told moderator Susan Page of USA Today.
  • Harris said the government has an obligation to address climate change and to steer American policy accordingly, but did not put a price tag on the effort. The Biden platform would return the United States to the Paris climate accords, the international compact from which Trump withdrew.
  • Pence pounced, saying that Harris had “put the radical environmental agenda ahead of American auto workers and ahead of American jobs and the American people. They want to abolish fossil fuels and ban fracking, which would cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs all across the heartland.” Vice President Pence

 

• “On day one, Joe Biden is going to raise your taxes,” Pence said. “It’s really remarkable.”
  • “When Joe Biden was vice president, they tried to tax and spend and regulate and bail our way back to a growing economy,” he said. “President Trump cut taxes across the board.”
  • Pence, reflecting the priorities of his party, said tax increases of any kind would dampen the economy:
    • “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want to raise taxes. They want to bury our economy. The American economy, the American comeback is on the ballot with four more years of growth,” he said. “2021 is going to be the biggest economic year in the history of this country. When Joe Biden was vice president, we lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs.” (Pence)

 

• “If you have a preexisting condition, heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, they’re coming for you if you love someone who has a pre-existing condition,” Harris said directly addressing the viewers at home. The topic at hand wasn’t about health care, but Harris pivoted from a question on taxes to discuss the popular Affordable Care Act.
  • Pence responded that he’d like the chance to discuss health care, stating, “Obamacare was a disaster. The American people remember it,” and claiming the Trump administration has a plan to protect people with preexisting conditions.

 

• Neither Pence nor Harris directly answered a question about the possibility they might assume the presidency because of the death or incapacity of the men at the top of the ticket, both men in their 70s with past or present health issues.

 

• One of you will make history on January 20th; you will be the vice president to the oldest president the United States has ever had. Donald Trump will be 74 years old on Inauguration Day. Joe Biden will be 78 years old,” Page said, noting that voter concern about the candidates’ advanced age had been compounded by Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis and hospitalization last week.
  • Pence, up first, responded with an attack on Biden’s handling of the 2009 swine flu outbreak, saying: “When Joe Biden was vice president of the United States, not 7½ million people contracted the swine flu; 60 million Americans contracted the swine flu. If the swine flu had been as lethal as the coronavirus in 2009 when Joe Biden was vice president, we would have lost 2 million American lives.” Harris, on the other hand talked about her own biography as the children of immigrants and claimed a synergy with Biden’s agenda.

 

• Vice President Pence tried to brush off concerns about a Sept. 26 ceremony at the White House Rose Garden, suspected to be the event where multiple people in President Trump’s circle contracted the coronavirus.
  • "It was an outdoor event, which all of our scientists regularly and routinely advise,” he added. There was, however, an indoor portion to the event that Pence failed to mention — crowded indoor receptions in the White House’s Diplomatic Room and Cabinet Room. Indoors or outdoors, most of the guests at the event did not wear masks and did not maintain socially distancing. Photos and videos from the event showed guests mingling, hugging and shaking hands. Less than a week after the party, lawmakers, Cabinet members and other members of Trump’s circle tested positive for the coronavirus.
  • Pence defended the Rose Garden event, saying many people who were there were tested beforehand. “The difference here is, President Trump and I trust the American people to make choices in the best interest of their health,” he said. “We’re about freedom and respecting the freedom of the American people.”
  • Harris shot back: “Let’s talk about respecting the American people. You respect the American people when you tell them the truth. You respect the American people when you have the courage to be a leader, speaking of those things that you may not want people to hear but they need to hear so they can protect themselves.”

 

• “The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country,” she said.

 

• “Our nation has gone through a very challenging time this year,” Pence said. “But I want the American people to know that from the very first day, President Donald Trump has put the health of America first.”

 

• The final question of the debate was submitted by an eighth-grader, who asked about the political divisions in the country and the leaders who can’t get along with one another.
  • Pence started with a criticism of the news media, speaking to the young student and saying, “I would tell you that I don’t assume that what you’re seeing on your local news networks is synonymous with the American people.” He went on to hail the relationship between two late Supreme Court justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. “One very liberal, one very conservative,” Pence said. “But what’s been learned since her passing was the two of them and their families were the very closest friends. I mean, here in America, we can disagree.”

 

• Harris used the question to focus on some of the divisions in the country, directly referencing the violence in Charlottesville in 2017, which Biden has said motivated him to run. “It’s so troubled and upset him like it did all of us, that there was that kind of hate and division,” Harris said. She continued promoting Biden as someone who could bridge divisions. “Joe Biden has a history of lifting people up and fighting for their dignity,” she said. “I mean, you have to know Joe’s story to know that Joe has known pain, he has known suffering, and he has known love.”