Pence and Harris Clash in Debate Separated by Plexiglass

Harris Jumps Early: Harris jumped out early in the debate, going after Pence for his administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The California senator attacked Pence’s position as the head of the Coronavirus Task Force. She repeatedly drove home the dire straights that the nation is facing as a result of the crisis, pointing out the over 210,000 deaths and the dismal state of the economy. While Harris cast Pence as incompetent in his leadership, she curiously did not mention the current crisis in the White House with Trump and so many of his staffers testing positive for the virus.

Pence’s Attack Lines: Although Harris clearly had a strategy that was built on the administration’s mishandling of the COVID-19 issue, Pence used his time to attack Harris for having a record of being one of the most liberal senators on Capitol Hill. The vice president was also successful in defending his administration’s position on taxes while putting Harris on the defense about her position on fracking, the Biden and Harris Green New Deal, and how Trump has handled China.

Tone and Tenor of the Debate: The bar was low when it came to presenting a calmer debate than the nation witnessed last week between Trump and Biden. Fortunately for viewers, Harris and Pence were able to keep the conversation mostly cordial. While there was a fair amount of interrupting and using more than the allotted amount of time, the tone and tenor were largely more in line with traditional debate events. In addition, the moderator was able to give each candidate equal talking time.

What Topics Were Ignored: One topic that neither candidate answered was regarding their ability to take over as president if needed. Regardless of who is elected, the president will be the oldest in history, making it important that the nation feel comfortable with the second in command. While this question was asked early in the debate, both candidates largely ignored the question, choosing to backtrack to the previous question or dance around the specifics.

The evasiveness of this topic was somewhat surprising to the political pundits. The advanced ages of Trump and Biden have made this issue an important topic to discuss. What was supposed to be one of the main points of discussion of the night was seemingly uninteresting and irrelevant to both of the candidates on the stage.

Clash Over Taxes: One point of contention between the two candidates was the issue of taxes. Pence repeatedly attacked the Biden tax plan for hurting the average American, pointing to the plan of the Democrats to roll back the tax cuts put in place by the Trump administration. However, Harris was quick to point out that their plan will only tax those Americans making more than $400,000 per year.

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Details of the Debate: The 90-minute debate covered 10 topics ranging from the COVID-19 health crisis, the economy, stacking the courts, climate change, and healthcare. The event was moderated by USA Today’s Susan Page. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the candidates did not shake hands when entering or exiting the stage. At the request of the Biden and Harris campaign, the candidates were protected by a plexiglass partition and were placed over 12 feet apart from each other on the stage.

Big Star of the Debate: No story of the vice presidential debate is complete without mentioning the star of the show on the internet. In an unfortunate circumstance for Pence, a fly landed on his head and stayed there for an entire two minutes. It did not take long for the internet to explode with jokes about the fly. History will remember this event in large part because of the surprise appearance by a fly.

Potential Fallout of the Debate: It has been said throughout history that vice presidential debates are very unlikely to move the needle in any direction. Most political experts agree that this will also be the case this year. In a year with very few undecided voters, the debates have been relegated to another form of political theater adding fuel to the fire of this contentious election season.

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It was clear that Harris was consciously playing it safe during the course of the event. This was likely intentional because of the significant lead that the Biden and Harris campaign is enjoying in the polls with only four weeks left until the election. It is not surprising that Pence was the candidate to go on the attack more as his campaign was looking to make a bigger statement during the event.

While people on both sides of the aisle will claim to have won the debate, the polling results in the next few days will paint a clearer picture of where the country stands on the issue.