07: Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA)
participates in the vice presidential debate against U.S. Vice
President Mike Pence at the University of Utah on October 7, 2020
in Salt Lake City, Utah. The vice presidential candidates only meet
once to debate before the general election on November 3. Alex
Wong/Getty Images/AFP
Democratic vice presidential hopeful Kamala Harris on
Wednesday called Donald Trump’s COVID-19 response a historic
failure that disqualified him from a second term, in a pointed but
mostly civil debate with Mike Pence who sought to portray her as
extreme.
With Trump’s weekend hospitalization for COVID-19 throwing a new
importance on the role of the vice president, Pence and Harris
spoke separated by plexiglass as a safety precaution 27 days before
the election.
Harris, who would be the highest-ranking woman in US history if
she enters the White House under a president Joe Biden, immediately
attacked Trump’s record on Covid-19, which has killed more than
210,000 people in the United States, more than in any other
country.
“The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure
of any presidential administration in the history of our country,”
said Harris, a US senator from California and former
prosecutor.
“And frankly, this administration has forfeited their right to
reelection based on this,” Harris said before a masked and limited
audience at the University of Utah.
Saying Trump treated front-line health personnel as “sacrificial
workers,” Harris — pointing to Trump’s own statements to journalist
Bob Woodward — accused the White House of not moving quickly
despite knowing the risks of Covid-19.
“The president said it was a hoax. They minimized the
seriousness of it,” Harris said.
– No name-calling – After a raucous debate eight days ago
between Trump and Biden, Pence and Harris took a more civil tone
with no name-calling, but sharply disagreed on the reaction to the
pandemic.
“I want the American people to know, from the very first day,
President Donald Trump has put the health of America first,” Pence
said, pointing to his ban on travel from China on January 31, a
month after cases first emerged in Wuhan.
Referencing a controversy that tanked Biden’s first presidential
campaign in 1988, Pence said the Democrats’ Covid plan sounds
“a little bit like plagiarism, which is something Joe Biden
knows a little bit about.”
In contrast to Trump’s firehose-like blasts on Biden and his
family, Pence demonstrated calm and stability and congratulated
Harris on the historic nature of her candidacy.
Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, would
also be both the first African-American and Asian-American vice
president.
But Pence tried to portray her as a radical, saying that Harris
— generally considered close to the Democratic establishment — was
further to the left than socialist Bernie Sanders.
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“More taxes, more regulation, banning fracking, abolishing
fossil fuel, crushing American energy, economic surrender to China
is a prescription for American decline,” Pence said, reciting a
list Biden would be unlikely to describe as his platform.
Pence, questioned by moderator Susan Page of USA Today,
acknowledged that “the climate is changing” but insisted that
market solutions were the best way to reduce carbon emissions.
Even if they delved more into substance, the two candidates
revealed little new about their policies and were notably evasive
on hot-button issues such as abortion and the Supreme Court.
In one moment that went without commentary on stage but
triggered an avalanche of social media commentary, a fly found its
way onto Pence, spending a visibly long time on his white hair.
The Biden campaign quickly started selling fly-swatters online
with the inscription, “Truth over flies.”
– ‘Great insult’ – The two candidates still scoffed at each
other’s remarks. At one point Harris, firmly but with a smile,
reproached Pence, telling him: “Mr vice president, I’m
speaking.”
They had one of their most intense clashes about racial justice
after nationwide protests over police treatment of
African-Americans.
Biden “believes that law enforcement has an implicit bias
against minorities,” Pence said.
“It’s a great insult to the men and women who serve in law
enforcement. And I want everyone to know who puts on the uniform of
law enforcement every day, President Trump and I stand with you,”
he said.
Pence, criticizing media coverage, insisted that Trump condemned
white supremacy despite what some viewers interpreted at the
president’s shout-out to the far-right Proud Boys group at his
debate last week.
Harris pointed to a slew of previous statements by Trump
including his notorious remarks that “fine people” were at a 2017
neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that turned
violent.
“I will not sit here and be lectured by the vice president on
what it means to enforce the laws of our country,” Harris said.
“I’m the only one on this stage who has personally prosecuted
everything from child sexual assault to homicide.”
Two more presidential debates are scheduled, but they are now up
in the air with Trump’s diagnosis.
Biden, 77, has said he would not want to debate if the
74-year-old Trump is still sick with the virus.
But Trump, ever the hyperbolic showman, said in a Wednesday
video that he felt “perfect” and called his infection “a blessing
from God.”
Trump appeared to be watching the vice presidential debate
avidly, tweeting without using Harris’ name that “she is a gaffe
machine.”