The University of Utah held a high-quality vice presidential debate on Wednesday, Oct. 7, during which Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris spoke on a wide variety of issues currently impacting the American people.
Predictably, Senator Harris called the Trump administration’s handling of coronavirus “…the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country.” Harris’ main argument for this statement was President Trump’s failure to make information regarding coronavirus available to the American public as soon as he was made aware of it. According to White House Correspondent Michael Crowley, her claim is true; the president was quoted in a private interview during which President Trump claimed that the coronavirus was “deadly,” while telling the American people in public that it was, “…going to be fine.” In response, Vice President Pence defended his task force, with no acknowledgment of Harris’ main argument.
When confronted about an event held at the White House (when President Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court), Vice President Pence argued it was perfectly fine because “it was an outdoor event which all of our scientists regularly, routinely advise.” Health reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports that this is false. The event in question had an indoor portion that exposed many attendees conversing closely without masks.
The conversation moved to the Supreme Court, during which Vice President Pence asked Senator Harris how she and former Vice President Joe Biden plan to approach the prospect of adding seats to the Supreme Court. He accused both her and Vice President Biden of avoiding sharing how they feel about growing the Supreme Court, which politics reporter Thomas Kaplan tells Americans is true.
The debate then moved to science, which has become a politicized word in recent years. On the topic of climate change, Vice President Pence said, “The climate is changing…President Trump has made it clear, we’re going to listen to science.” Some viewers have agreed that Vice President Pence’s claim makes it sound like climate change is an emerging issue, not an established concern. He then said that “our air and land are cleaner than any time ever recorded. Our water is among the cleanest in the world,” which is mostly true. The levels of air pollutants in the United States have been declining steadily for 40 years, and the United States usually ranks in the top 10 countries for clean, safe drinking water.
Foreign relations became a significant topic of conversation when Senator Harris said, “Donald Trump…prefers to take the word of Vladimir Putin over the word of the American intelligence community,” which was confirmed to be true by Helen Cooper, a Pentagon Correspondent. In this claim, Senator Harris was referring to President Trump’s history of ignoring and disagreeing with the United States Intelligence Community’s claims that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in order to help President Trump win. On the topic of international affairs, Senator Harris said, “Pew…has done an analysis that show that leaders of…our formerly allied countries…hold in greater esteem and respect the head of the Chinese Communist Party than they do Donald Trump.” According to trade reporter Ana Swanson, this is true. Earlier this month, Pew published a survey that revealed that while most nations didn’t have faith in either individual, a median of 19 percent had faith in Mr. Xi and a median of 17 percent had faith in President Trump.
In the past, vice presidential debates have not been very significant or influential. However, with two presidential nominees above the age of 70, the probability of either Vice President Pence or Senator Harris becoming the president one day is quite high. And so, their debate, like so many occurrences in 2020, made history.
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