Key Takeaways from the Vice Presidential Debate
Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pense duked it out over the issues in the 2020 Presidential Election Vice Presidential Debate. In marked contrast from the debate between Presidential hopefuls, the two consistently formed full sentences. Source.
Twelve feet apart and separated by plexiglass barriers, Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence engaged in their one and only debate on Wednesday night. This debate had a starkly different, “politics as usual” mood that was absent from the earlier presidential debate. While there were still questions dodged by both sides and attempts to speak over the moderator, largely the debate maintained civility and allowed the participants the opportunity to speak on policy.
Historically, Vice Presidential debates do little to affect voter turnout, but this debate could be more meaningful because of the vulnerability of both septuagenarian presidential candidates. Joe Biden, at 77 years old, would be the oldest person to be sworn in as President. While Donald Trump’s high risk age, 74, and his case of COVID-19 leads to questions of the president’s own long-term health. The advanced ages of both presidential candidates increases the probability that the Vice President would have to step in to lead the nation, making this one of the most influential debates to date.
The issue of COVID-19 is ubiquitous for the average American with COVID deaths now totaling over 200,000. Senator Harris notably called the Trump administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, “the greatest failure of any presidential administration in our country,” and then explained that the current administration, “forfeited their right for reelection”. Vice President Pence responded with criticisms of the Obama-Biden administration’s handling of the swine flu, a Biden scandal concerning plagiarism and touting of the upcoming vaccine. Pence labeled the COVID-19 pandemic handling as a success and continued to steer debate questions back to the pandemic even after new questions not directly concerning the pandemic were asked.
Pence towed the same line as Trump in never officially acknowledging the threat of climate change. Vice President Mike Pence looked to steer the climate change conversation away from Kamala’s home state of California and its ravaging wildfires, and aim towards the issue of fracking. Pence accused the Biden-Harris campaign of planning to ban fracking entirely presumably to target voters in Pennsylvania, a swing state, where fracking is a salient policy issue. Meanwhile, Senator Harris spoke of the Biden-Harris climate plan and its ability to create upwards of 7 million jobs focused on clean and renewable energy.
The issue of the murder of Breonna Taylor and the non-indictment of her killers yielded antithetical responses from Harris and Pence. Harris emphasized that she did not believe justice was served in Ms. Taylor’s case, while Pence underscored his faith in the law and how it was insulting to insinuate that law enforcement officers have racial biases.
Above all, the debate seemed to consistently return to the issues of the economy and healthcare. The story is essentially the same as other debates in terms of the economy; Pence highlighted the goodness of tax cuts while disparaging the idea of tax raises. Harris accused her Republican opponent of only caring for the rich, while the Democrats stood up for the working man. Harris did highlight that the proposed Biden-Harris tax increases would only apply to those making $400,000 or more, not to all Americans like Trump and Pence had previously insinuated.
Harris attacked Pence on healthcare, claiming that the Trump-Pence administration is “...coming for you,” if you’re an American with preexisting health conditions. Pence fired back an insult about the Affordable Care Act, often deemed Obama Care by opponents, specifically calling it “a disaster.”
The debate did not seem to affect the way people were planning on voting before the debate, but Senator Harris did improve her favorability ratings according to fivethirtyeight. 55% of people said this debate did not affect which way they will vote in the election. A CNN poll showed a gender gap among viewers with 69% of women picking Harris as the debate winner, and 30% of women picking Pence. While among men it was closer with 48% of men picking Harris as the winner and 46% selecting Pence.
Overall this debate was a refreshing return to regular political decorum without the shock value of the previous debate; this point emphasized by the shining moment being the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head for two whole minutes.