US Election 2020

VP debate 2020: Pence and Harris clash on coronavirus pandemic

  • 8 October 2020
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Democratic vice-presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris and US Vice President Mike Pence debate Image copyright Reuters

US Vice-President Mike Pence and Democratic running mate Kamala Harris have clashed fiercely over the coronavirus pandemic in a TV debate.

Ms Harris accused President Donald Trump of "the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country".

Mr Pence said Democratic nominee Joe Biden's pandemic plan was "plagiarism" of the current White House's.

Mr Biden leads Mr Trump with 27 days to go to the vote.

In Wednesday night's 90-minute debate at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Ms Harris was asked whether she would take an approved Covid-19 vaccine distributed ahead of the election.

The 55-year-old California senator said she would not take a vaccine touted by Mr Trump without the approval of medical professionals.

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Media captionVP debate: What do young voters in Utah want to see?

Mr Pence - a mild mannered former Indiana governor known for his steadfast loyalty to Mr Trump - retorted: "The fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine if the vaccine emerges during the Trump administration I think is unconscionable.

"And, senator, I just ask you, stop playing politics with people's lives."

The plexiglass barriers separating the two debaters seated 12ft (3.6m) apart was a vivid reminder of the pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans.

The president - who is himself recovering from the virus - returned to the White House on Monday evening after three nights in hospital, with his opinion poll numbers drooping.

On Wednesday he declared that catching the disease was a "blessing from God" that exposed to him to experimental treatments he vowed would become free for all Americans.

The virus has meanwhile spread through the West Wing of the White House as well as infecting figures inside the president's re-election campaign and senior Pentagon officials.

What were the other key debate moments?

This was a relatively civil forum between two polished communicators compared to last week's presidential debating brawl between Mr Trump and Mr Biden, which degenerated into insults and name-calling.

But there were heated exchanges on Wednesday, nevertheless.

On the question of racial justice, Mr Pence expressed shock at the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. But he added: "There is no excuse for the rioting and looting that followed."

He pointed to one of his guests in the auditorium, Flora Westbrooks, a black woman whose hair studio was destroyed during unrest in Minneapolis.

"This presumption that you hear consistently from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris," the vice-president added, "that America is systemically racist that, as Joe Biden has said, law enforcement has an implicit bias against minorities, is a great insult."

Ms Harris - who was making history by becoming the first black woman to stand on a vice-presidential debate stage - said: "Last week the president of the United States took a debate stage in front of 70 million Americans and refused to condemn white supremacists.

"And it wasn't like he didn't have a chance. He didn't do it and then he doubled down and then he said when pressed, 'Stand back, stand by.'

"And this is part of a pattern of Donald Trump's."

"Not true, not true," said Mr Pence, arguing that when Ms Harris was prosecutor in San Francisco African Americans were more likely to be prosecuted for minor drug offences than whites or Latinos.

In other key flashpoints:

  • Ms Harris said the Trump tit-for-tat tariffs on China had caused a manufacturing recession, adding: "You lost that trade war. You lost it." Mr Pence hit back: "Lost the trade war with China? Joe Biden never fought it. Joe Biden's been a cheerleader for communist China through, over the last several decades"
  • Ms Harris assailed Mr Trump for paying $750 a year in federal income taxes as president, according to a New York Times investigation. "When I first heard about it, I literally said, 'You mean $750,000?' And it was like, 'No, $750.'"
  • Ms Harris said Mr Trump had "betrayed our friends and embraced dictators around the world". Mr Pence said Mr Trump had ordered operations that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani

The debate was notable for the questions that the candidates did not directly answer.

Mr Pence twice pressed Ms Harris on whether Mr Biden would expand the number of seats of the Supreme Court, which has had nine justices for a century and a half, but she spoke instead about Mr Trump's current judicial nominee.

Mr Pence did not answer questions including about how the Trump administration would provide medical insurance for sick Americans.

Focus on the running mates has intensified given 74-year-old Mr Trump's Covid-10 diagnosis, and the fact that Mr Biden would be the oldest president ever to take office at 78.

But when asked by the debate moderator about the chances of them taking over the presidency, both candidates skirted the subject.

Mr Pence, 61, spoke about Mr Biden's handling of the 2009 swine flu outbreak, and Ms Harris - the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father - spoke of her own biography.