Despite riding the coattails of President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis and the coronavirus’ permeation of the West Wing, the 2020 Vice Presidential debate harbored tropes familiar to debates of years past: evaded questions, measured responses and somewhat contentious debate of abstract ideals based in current political jargon rather than substantial policy. Except, with plexiglass fortifications and twelve feet between the candidates, it didn’t look much like the debates of yesteryear.
And neither did the candidates. Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris, just the fourth woman ever nominated to a major party ticket as well as the first Black person and first Asian American ever to be nominated as vice president, sought to prosecute the Trump administration’s record and response to COVID-19.
“The idea of Kamala Harris being the first woman of color in office is so exciting and for me, a woman, I feel like we are finally getting the representation we deserve,” junior theater education major Lauren Pilling said.
In Vice President Mike Pence of Indiana, Trumpism was given a new lease on life, as Pence faithfully defended Trump and managed to speak to the Republican base in a restrained manner not so often employed by the president himself. Harris began the night strong by addressing the camera and immediately setting the record straight on the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic and the administration’s failure to inform the public of the threat therein.
“On January 28, the vice president and the president were informed about the nature of this pandemic,” Harris said. “They were informed that it’s lethal… that it will affect young people, and that it would be contracted, because it is airborne. And they knew what was happening and they didn’t tell you.”
Pence, for his part, didn’t appear fazed, and indicated that he, the coronavirus task force he led and the president really had been on top of the crisis, all the while roping in a decades-past speech-writing dig on Vice President Biden.
“The reality is when you look at the Biden plan it reads an awful lot like what President Trump and I and our task force have been doing every step of the way. … it looks a little bit like plagiarism,” he said.
When the candidates clashed over the economy, Harris sought to draw a fundamental distinction between Vice President Biden and the incumbent.
“Joe Biden believes you measure the health and the strength of America’s economy based on the health and the strength of the American worker and the American family,” she said. “On the other hand, you have Donald Trump, who measures the strength of the economy based on how rich people are doing.”
Pence attempted to repaint the Biden strategy and defend the current economy, sewing in several false claims, particularly regarding fracking, later contested by Harris.
“More taxes, more regulation, banning fracking, abolishing fossil fuel, crushing American energy and economic surrender to China is a prescription for economic decline. President Trump and I will keep America growing,” Pence said.
Pushed further, Pence again claimed that Biden would raise taxes on day one.
“Joe Biden has been very clear: he will not raise taxes on anybody who makes less than $400,000 a year,” Harris rebutted.
One of the hot-button issues in the run-up to the election is the Trump administration’s push to nominate conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett, and what that decision might mean for both abortion rights and the future of the Affordable Care Act.
On abortion, Harris expressed her belief in a woman’s right to choose and her dismayal that Pence and the President may find it in their power to confiscate it. Pence deflected the question, opting instead to provide an endorsement for Barrett.
“I think he knew people would not like his answer so he chose not to answer it,” Pilling said.
In a striking and direct address to the camera, Harris also laid out the threat to healthcare by a future Trump presidency.
““If you have a pre-existing condition — heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer — they’re coming for you,” Harris said. “If you love someone who has a pre-existing condition, they’re coming for you. If you are under the age of 26 on your parents’ coverage, they’re coming for you.”
“I think Harris framed that threat well,” Pilling said. “She made sure everyone knew what was at stake, which is affordable healthcare for people of all ages, gender, race and sexuality.”
When Pence tried to corner Harris into taking a stance on court-packing should Barrett be confirmed, she evaded the question, opting instead to highlight Trump’s own discriminatory efforts to pack the appeals courts.
“Do you know that of the 50 people who President Trump nominated to the courts for lifetime appointments, not one is Black?” Harris said. “You want to talk about packing the courts, let’s have that discussion.”
On criminal justice reform, Harris laid out several measures a Biden administration would employ to combat systemic racism, including a ban on chokeholds, cash bail, the dismantling of private prisons and the creation of a national registry for offending officers, among others.
Pence, on the other hand, denied the existence of systemic racism and implicit bias in policing, calling the implication offensive.
“Pence’s denial of systemic racism and bias in our nation’s justice system very clearly shows the Trump administration’s lack of education, or possibly even worse, the lack of empathy the administration holds towards issues of racial discrimination, oppression, and violence in our country,” UNC Chapel Hill environmental science major Kaden Graham said.
Harris also managed to land a strike on the president’s tax records, recently released and reported on by The New York Times, noting his tax payment of $750 in election year and his $400+ million debt.
“When we say ‘in debt,’ it means you owe money to somebody, and it would be really good to know who the President of the United States owes money to,” she said, “because the American people have a right to know what is influencing the president’s decisions.”
Throughout the debate, Harris endured endless interruptions from the Vice President, a phenomenon experienced far too often by women, and in particular, women of color. Her response to these interruptions, a firm insistence that
“Mr. Vice President, I’m Speaking,” set Twitter ablaze with memes throughout the course of the debate.
“She refused to allow Pence to speak over her,” Graham said. “Kamala won.”
