Recap of vice presidential debate
Last night was the vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif) at the University of Utah.
The moderator was Susan Page from USA Today.
The first topic was the coronavirus pandemic.
Harris said the Trump administration’s response is the greatest failure in the history of our country with 210,000 deaths and millions filing for unemployment, and they still don’t have a plan.
Pence said Trump saved hundred of thousands of American lives by banning travel from China and that his administration has led the development of a vaccine with tens of millions of doses set to be ready at the end of the year.
Harris said she wouldn’t take a vaccine if Donald Trump told her to take one, but would trust Dr. Fauci and public health professionals.
The second topic was on the vice presidency and on their ability to take over if Trump or Biden became incapacitated.
Pence didn’t respond to the question but went back to the previous topic by saying Harris was playing politics with peoples lives by undermining the confidence in a vaccine.
Harris said she is ready to take over if needed because of her experience as the attorney general in California and as a senator.
The third topic was on the economy and the American job crisis.
Harris said Joe Biden measures the health and strength of the American economy based on the health and strength of the American worker and the American family, while Trump measures it based on how rich people are doing.
Pence said Biden would raise taxes and bury our economy by supporting the two trillion Green New Deal. He said with four more years of Trump, the American economy would make a comeback.
Both argued about whether the Trump tax bill benefited or hurt the average working family.
The fourth topic was on climate change.
Pence said the U.S. has reduced CO2 more than countries that are still in the Paris Climate Accord because we have focused on energy via natural gas and fracking, which creates jobs and lowers energy costs. He said Biden would ban fracking.
Harris said it is not true that Biden would ban fracking. She said the Trump administration doesn’t believe in science.
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The fifth topic was on foreign policy.
Both argued about their approaches and relationships with China. Harris said the Trump administration lost the trade war with China, while Pence said Biden has been a cheerleader for communist China.
Harris said Trump has betrayed our friends and embraced dictators around the world.
Pence said Trump destroyed ISIS and criticized the Obama administration for failing to save an American hostage named Kayla Mueller.
The sixth topic was on the Supreme Court.
Pence said he hoped that Democrats would not attack Amy Coney Barrett for her Catholic and pro-life views and confirm her without the treatment that Justice Brett Kavanaugh got. Pence questioned whether Biden would add seats to the Supreme Court if they won the presidency.
Harris said because we are 27 days away from the election with 4 million people already voting, we should allow the American people to fill that seat in the White House and the seat in the Supreme Court. She criticized the Trump administration for not appointing a single Black judge out of 50 federal judicial appointments.
The seventh topic was on racial justice.
Harris said Breonna Taylor’s family did not get justice. She said we need to reform our policing in America and our criminal justice system, get rid of private prisons and cash bail, and decriminalize marijuana.
Pence said they sympathize with Breonna Taylor’s family but that he trusts our justice system and the grand jury in the case. He criticized rioting and looting that happened during protests. Pence said it was an insult to say that law enforcement has a bias against minorities.
Harris said Trump refused to condemn white supremacists, Pence said Harris caused an increase in the disproportionate incarceration of Black people in California.
The eighth topic was on the election.
Harris said Trump is trying to suppress the vote and encouraged people to vote.
Pence said he thinks they will win the election and that the Democratic Party has spent the last three and half years trying to overturn the results of the 2016 election with FBI investigations or by impeaching Trump.
The ninth topic was on unity between Democrats and Republicans.
Pence said a good model is the relationship between the late justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia because they were close friends despite having opposing liberal and conservative views.
Harris said Biden was upset by the events in Charlottesville and the hate and division out there, and that we can vote to determine the future of our country.
That's the recap of the debate.
There was a lot of buzz online about a fly that landed on Pence’s head and stayed there for several minutes.
This is the only vice presidential debate that is planned for this election season.