Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh

Vice presidents clash over coronavirus response and healthcare – as it happened

Tonight's takeaways

  • Both candidates dodged questions. Pence, who is known for his evasiveness – and has even earned praise from Trump for his ability to avoid answers to journalists direct questions – often changed the topic set by moderator Susan Page. He did not to explain the administration’s decision to hold an event at the Rose Garden with unmasked guests, shortly before an outbreak of coronavirus at White House. He didn’t say what he’d do if Republicans lose the presidential election, and Trump refuses to accept the results. Asked about healthcare protections for people with preexisting conditions, Pence pivoted to a discussion of abortion and then demanded that Harris respond to whether she and Biden support packing the supreme court. Harris avoided answering the latter and avoided addressing what she and Biden would do if Trump contests election results.
  • Harris condemned the administration’s coronavirus response, as expected. With the president recovering Covid-19 and the coronavirus death toll ticking past 200,000 – Harris was expected to excoriate Pence’s record as the head of the White House coronavirus task force. And she delivered. The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country,” Harris said. “This administration has forfeited their right to re-election.”
  • Moderator Susan Page was often unable to rein in Pence, who barreled over her pleas that he respect the time limits. “I did not create the rules for tonight,” she said at one point, after Pence talked over her. “I’m here to enforce them.” Harris also pushed back when the vice-president interrupted. “Mr Vice-president, I’m speaking. I’m speaking,” she said firmly and continued to make her point about Trump’s tax cuts.
  • One of Harris’ strongest moments was when she addressed the Trump administrations efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA). “If you have a pre-existing condition, heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, they’re coming for you.” she said. “If you love someone who has a pre-existing condition, they’re coming for you.” Pre-existing conditions are currently protected by the ACA.
  • Pence proved himself to be a loyal soldier for the president. In calm, measured tones that contrasted sharply with Trump’s approach to the presidential debate, Pence nonetheless repeated many of the same lines as Trump: touting the president’s travel restrictions, bragging about – and exaggerating – economic gains, and painting moderates Biden and Harris as lefty progressives who want to ban fracking. (Much to the dismay of lefty progressives, they don’t.)
  • A fly landed on Pence’s head and stayed there for two minutes. Jokes and memes abounded.

That’s all from me, tonight. Read a full recap of the debate here:

Updated

It’s unclear how much tonight’s debate will sway voters, many of whom have already cast their ballots.

At least 5.6 million people have already voted in states where early voting has begun.

Elections officials in Texas collect mail-in ballots.
Elections officials in Texas collect mail-in ballots. Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Ahead of the debate, polls showed Harris was the only candidate at the top oof the ticket with a net-positive favorability rating – on average in national polls, more Americans new her positively than negatively.

Pence’s favorability is lagging – an average of 48% view him unfavorably, and 43% favorably per an average from Real Clear Politics.

Here’s the reaction from Pete Buttigieg, who played fellow Indianan Pence during debate prep:

The Trump campaign’s first reaction to the debate: “Vice President Mike Pence made clear tonight that President Trump is the clear choice to continue to rebuild the American economy.” The rest of the statement is riddled with false and misleading claims.

The campaign’s Marc Short said Pence “exposed Joe Biden’s plan to raise taxes by $4 trillion, strangle the economy with Green New Deal regulations, ban fracking, abolish fossil fuels, and kill millions of jobs in the process.”

Biden, in fact, does not aim to ban fracking (only restrict new fracking permits) and he has not said he will abolish fossil fuels.

And although it’s unclear how Biden’s climate plan (which my colleague Emily Holden has reviewed here), he has largely angled it as a job creator.

Short added: “Senator Harris is the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate and it showed, as she continued to push Joe Biden to the left. President Trump built the world’s best economy once and is already doing it a second time.”

The website GovTrack ranked Harris the most liberal senator in 2019, but that’s based on the bills and resolutions she sponsored. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are arguably progressive in their ideology - and Sanders was ranked more liberal than Harris by Govtrack in previous years.

There is now fly-related merch.

The Biden Victory Fund is now selling a “Truth Over Flies” fly swatter...

And then there’s this:

Updated

On climate change, I wanted to quickly circle back to something Pence said: That there were no more hurricanes than there were 100 years ago. The vice president made this point as evidence that Democrats were exaggerating the impacts of climate change – and it was a bit misleading.

My colleague Oliver Milman addressed this during last year’s hurricane season:

While the overall number of hurricanes has remained roughly the same in recent decades, there is evidence they are intensifying more quickly, resulting in a greater number of the most severe category four and five storms.

The proportion of tropical storms that rapidly strengthen into powerful hurricanes has tripled over the past 30 years, according to recent research. A swift increase in pace over a 24-hour period makes hurricanes less predictable, despite improving hurricane forecasting systems, and more likely to cause widespread damage.

The devastation unleashed by recent hurricanes has led to warnings that premiums may rise as insurers face ballooning claims. A record $135bn was paid out by insurers in North America in 2017, mostly as a result of hurricane damages. “We have a new normal,” says Ernst Rauch, a senior executive at insurance company Munich Re. “We must have on our radar the trend of new magnitudes.”

Over on CNN, former US senator Rick Santorum just delivered a masterclass in proving someone else’s point, interrupting his fellow commentator Gloria Borger just as she was talking about Kamala Harris getting interrupted by Mike Pence. She was literally in the middle of saying how common an experience it is for women.

Updated

Pence – in contrast to Donald Trump – delivered his message in a calm, measured tone. But he repeated many of the false claims made by the president.

Most notably, he misconstrued and overplayed the impact of travel restrictions on the US’ coronavirus case count, and misleading Americans on the administration’s stance on healthcare protections for people with preexisting protections.

In other cases, Pence declined to correct Trump’s record. Asked if Pence would accept the results if Republicans lose the presidential election, Pence dodged.

“First and foremost, I think we’re going to win this election,” he said. “When you talk about accepting the outcome of the election, I must tell you, Senator, your party has spent the last three and a half years trying to overturn the results of the last election. It’s amazing.”

Harris didn’t directly respond when asked what she and Biden would do if Pence and Trump refused to step aside, Harris urged: “Please vote. Vote early, come up with a plan to vote.”

When discussion turned to the police and the nationwide protests against police brutality, Pence broached Harris’ record as attorney general of California and her prosecutorial record.

It’s an issue that often came up during the Democratic primaries, and took on new relevance after the police killing of George Floyd triggered protests across the nation. As the Guardian has reported before, while Harris has sought to present herself as a “progressive prosecutor”, her record is more complicated. Her approach to sex work, police reform, prisoners’ rights and truancy have drawn criticism from activists in her home state.

Though she initially disregarded calls to investigate a series of police shootings in San Francisco after the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, she did begin to evolve by the end of her tenure as attorney general - and in 2016 suggested some reforms to increase her office’s power to investigate police.

But these criticisms are odd coming from Pence – and Trump, who has brought them up before – given the administration’s harsh “law and order” rhetoric.

Updated

The fly on Mike Pence’s head seems to be the breakout star of this debate.

Both vice-presidential candidates, meanwhile, swatted away direct questions – pivoting to topics they wanted to discuss rather than what was actually asked. The 90 minutes flew by, as the candidates buzzed over the moderator’s pleas to stick to time limits.

Sorry ... (not sorry)

Updated

The vice presidential debate concludes

The debate has now ended, with the final question coming from an eighth grader on what can be done to bring people together.

Mike Pence and Kamala Harris answered hopefully about what can be done. But with just over a week to go until the next presidential debate with Donald Trump and Joe Biden, it seems likely that the problem will only be laid bare once again.

Updated

Pence dodged a question about what he’d do if Trump loses, and refuses to accept the results.

Watching the debate tonight, we’re reminded of something Trump once said about the vice president after Pence dodged a journalist’s question about healthcare earlier this year: “I think that’s one of the greatest answers I’ve ever heard because Mike was able to speak for five minutes and not even touch your question.”

Updated

Pence, muttered “Not true,” when Harris referenced Trump’s comments on the Proud Boys.

Harris’ assertion was true – and witnessed by everyone watching on TV. Pence has repeatedly questioned Harris’ grasp of the facts tonight – even as he has continued to make false and misleading statements.

Meanwhile, over on Mike Pence’s head… a fly just set up shop, and for a decent amount of time too.

In an otherwise very serious debate, it’s provided some light relief:

Asked if Breonna Taylor was denied justice, Pence responded: “I trust our justice system,” Pence said.

“This idea that America is systemically racist, that there’s implicit bias in law enforcement,” Pence said, “is a great insult to the men and women who work in law enforcement.”

Harris hit back: “I am the only one on this stage who has personally prosecuted” a range of crimes, she said. She then attacked Trump’s refusal to condemn white supremacists. The president told Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during the first presidential debate. “This is part of a pattern,” Harris said, pointing to the president’s racist rhetoric about Mexicans, and his response to white supremacists marching in Charlottesville.

Updated

Harris twice avoided answering whether a Biden administration would pack the supreme court.

Biden has taken a similar approach, largely avoiding a straight answer on whether he’d support adding seats to the supreme court if Trump’s nominee Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed.

Updated

Asked what they would do in their states if Roe v Wade is overturned by the supreme court, Pence completely evaded the question, and Harris pivoted to healthcare.

Pence began by responding to a previous topic and then accused Democrats of attacking supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett – a conservative who is expected to overturn American’s women’s right to abortion – based on her faith.

Harris said she will “always fight for a woman’s right to make choices about her body”. She then pointed out that abortion isn’t the only issue that could be decided by Barrett – the future of the ACA is currently being challenged in the supreme court.

Neither directly said what they’d do in Indiana and California, respectively.

Updated

Susan Page gave Pence a talking to, after he repeatedly rolled through her warnings that his time to speak was up.

“You have 15 seconds,” Page warned Pence.

“I gotta have more than that,” he insisted.

Through the night, Page has tried to interrupt, ineffectively, with “thank you, Vice-president Pence” – even as she’s talked over.

Updated

Meanwhile, in China … viewers of the debate are reportedly not getting to find out what Kamala Harris and Mike Pence are saying about China.

This was just shared by the Globe and Mail’s Beijing correspondent (and later updated once the China section was over here):

Updated

On foreign policy, Harris says Trump has “ embraced dictators around the world,” and sided with Russia over American intelligence. “America’s intelligence community told us Russia interfered in the election in 2016,” she said. “But Donald Trump prefers to take the word of Vladimir Putin over word of the U.S. intelligence community”

This was the memorable moment Kamala Harris spoke directly to viewers about Trump’s plans for their healthcare:

It looks like Donald Trump is tuned in...

Next up, trade. Here’s a memorable volley:

Harris: “The vice-president earlier referred to as part of what he thinks is an accomplishment, the president’s trade war with China. You lost that trade war. You lost it.”

Pence: “Lost the trade war with China? Joe Biden never fought it.”

There was also some gliding over facts.

“When President Trump and I took office, America had gone through the slowest recovery since the Great Depression,” Pence said. However, Obama presided over the longest stretch of job growth in history.

Harris said 300,000 manufacturing jobs were lost due to Trump’s trade war with China. That’s misleading: the US gained manufacturing jobs under Trump – before losing them due to the pandemic.

Updated

Kamala Harris has now had to hit back at Mike Pence for interrupting her twice. Meanwhile, Pence has repeatedly gone over his allotted time limit. Not everyone is happy with the moderator Susan Page at this disparity:

The candidates are addressing climate change.

“With regard to climate change, the climate is changing, but the issue is, what’s the cause and what do we do about it?” Pence said. “President Trump has made a commitment to conservation and to the environment.”

The cause, a consensus of scientists have established, is greenhouse gases. The president has systematically rolled back environmental protections.

Updated

Harris to Americans with pre-existing conditions: 'They're coming for you'

“If you have a pre-existing condition, heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, they’re coming for you. If you love someone who has a pre-existing condition, they’re coming for you,” Harris said.

The Trump administration is currently seeking to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which protects pre-existing conditions, in the supreme court.

Updated

Both Pence and Harris largely dodged questions about whether the American people deserve to know more detailed health information about the presidential candidates.

Trump and Biden are 74 and 77, respectively, and the former is currently recovering from Covid-19.

Updated

So far the debate has been relatively tame compared to last week, although given Trump’s constant interruptions that’s not saying a huge amount.

The main theme so far has been the spectacle of a VP debate taking place in the middle of the pandemic, but also the history of Kamala Harris being on stage as the first woman of color in such an event.

Here’s how viewers have been responding online:

Pence, who has already made several false statements tonight, said he and the administration have “always” told the American people the truth.

The vice president also touted the “transparency” of Trump’s medical team – even as they have disseminated false information and declined to respond to journalists questions.

Much of the information about the White House coronavirus outbreak has come from journalists.

Updated

Mike Pence had no real explanation for the White House’s choice to hold an event at the Rose Garden, which contradicted local rules about gatherings in Washington DC as well as his own task force’s guidelines.

The vice president’s tactic so far is to hear a question and carry on answering an entirely different one.

Asked directly about the Rose Garden gathering, Pence praised the American people’s resilience and sacrifices. “The work of the president of the United States goes on,” Pence said.

Updated

“Mr Vice President, I’m speaking. I’m speaking,” Harris asserted when Pence tries to interrupt her.

Although the night is decidedly less chaotic and cacophonic than the first presidential debate – during which Trump consistently interrupted and talked over his opponent – there are some tense dynamics tonight.

“The American people have had to sacrifice far too much because of the incompetence of this administration,” Harris shot at the vice president, who attempted to defend the administration’s record on coronavirus.

Updated

Pence claims Biden plagiarized the Trump administration’s Covid-19 response.

The vice president also touted travel restrictions that epidemiologists have said were implemented too late – after the virus was already circulating within the US – to be especially effective.

Harris was asked about the Biden administration’s plan for the pandemic – but she spent the majority of her two minutes attacking the Trump administration’s response.

With the president currently recovering from a coronavirus infection – Pence will have to explain how he, as head of the task force, was unable to foresee or help prevent even an outbreak within the White House.

First volley: Harris attacks Pence over coronavirus response

“The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country,” Harris said, citing the 210,000 Americans who have died of Covid-19.

Harris has been expected to hit Pence on the administration’s pandemic response – he is, after all, the head of the White House coronavirus task force.

Updated

The University of Utah, which is hosting the debate tonight, has put out bingo cards, for those who want to play along at home.

“Dr Anthony Fauci”, “systemic racism”, and “masks” are among the terms on there. Elsewhere, people are surely developing their own, less wholesome drinking games ...

Updated

Vice presidential candidates take the stage

The candidates have taken their positions – 12 feet apart from each other to minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission.

Susan Page, who is moderating today’s debate, has asked the audience to remain quiet, and refrain from applauding any time other than the beginning and end of the event.

Page is the Washington Bureau Chief for USA Today. She’s the first print journalist to moderate a televised presidential or vice presidential debate since 1976.

Updated

How Harris and Pence have prepped

Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor who ran against Harris and Biden for president before Biden emerged as the candidate, has taken on the role of Pence in a series of mock debates. Buttigieg, like Pence, is from Indiana, although the two are eons apart politically and personally.

Harris, a former prosecutor, won rave reviews for her performance in an early Democratic debate, when she criticized Biden for his record on race.

Axios reported that Harris had similarly planned to go on the attack on Wednesday, tying Pence to Trump and rebuking the pair over their coronavirus response, healthcare and beyond. The California senator had apparently “planned a handful of anti-Trump zingers”, but given the president’s ill-health, she will tone it down.

Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, has been helping Pence with his debate prep, filling in for Harris. Some of Pence’s preparation has involved developing ways to attack Harris “without opening himself up to criticism that he is acting in a disrespectful or sexist way”, according to NBC News.

Pence has invited Ann Dorn, the widow of retired police captain David Dorn, to the debate

Ann Dorn, widow of slain police officer David Dorn spoke during the largely virtual 2020 Republican National Convention.
Ann Dorn, widow of slain police officer David Dorn spoke during the largely virtual 2020 Republican National Convention. Photograph: Republican National Convention/Reuters

Ann Dorn spoke during the Republican National Convention about her late husband, who died amid protests against police brutality in St Louis. She said he died while trying to protect a friend’s shop from looters, and during the RNC told voters to support Trump because he understands that “violence and destruction are not legitimate forms of protest ... They do not safeguard Black lives. They only destroy them.”

But the late Dorn’s daughters said they objected to their father’s death being politicized. David Dorn and his wife disagreed on politics, and “what I want people to know is that my father would not have wanted his name, his image, his likeness to be used and politicized to continue to support the efforts of Trump and his administration, especially his law-and-order agenda”, daughter Lisa Dorn told CNN.

Updated

What’s the format?

The debate will be divided into nine 10-minute segments – and last a total of 90 minutes.

After a chaotic first presidential debate, during which Donald Trump repeatedly interrupted Joe Biden and moderator Chris Wallace, we’re expecting a more civil performance by the vice presidential candidates tonight.

Pence and Harris set to debate for first – and only - time

Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of tonight’s vice presidential debate.

Mike Pence and Kamala Harris are scheduled to take the debate stage at 9pm ET in Salt Lake City, for their first and only face-off of this election cycle.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has already affected the staging and format of the debate, will undoubtedly be a major topic of discussion tonight. The two campaigns have already argued over whether the candidates should be separated by plexiglass barriers after Pence was exposed to the virus amid an outbreak at the White House. (The dinky barriers that were, eventually, put up are not useful, disease experts say, as the virus could be transmitted through the air).

As the president continues to recover from a Covid-19 infection, Pence – the head of the White House coronavirus task force – will have to answer for why the administration has failed to prevent an outbreak within the White House, even as the national coronavirus death toll ticks past 210,000.

Meanwhile, Harris will have an easier job. As a senator and former prosecutor, Harris has established herself as a sharp questioner – and she’ll have to attack the administration’s failures without coming off as attacking the sick president.

Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief for USA Today, will moderate the debate.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban Divorce: Babygirl Star Breaks Silence On Split, Vows To Keep Family Together
Nicole Kidman has addressed her divorce from Keith Urban for the first time, using a new Variety interview to stress privacy, family and forward motion. Her comments arrive months after reports of the September 2025 split and January settlement details that set out how the former couple would parent their…
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
People Have Been Following Around Tom Holland Hoping To See If He's Wearing A Wedding Band Like Zendaya
Did Zendaya put a ring on it, too?
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
A New Live-Action Scooby-Doo Has Fans Asking One Important Question: Who Owns Scooby?
Shaggy, right? RIGHT?
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
Ethan Hawke Reminds Us the Kind of King He Is: “But I Don’t Eat Food”
Finger sandwiches? Spinach dip? What does he mean?
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
Sir Paul McCartney: Yoko Ono questioned if John Lennon was gay
Sir Paul McCartney has claimed Yoko Ono told him she thought John Lennon "might have been gay" in a phone call after the death of her husband.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Woman realizes she’s pregnant—but only after boyfriend displays strange symptoms: ‘The way I would be annoyed at him’
Given how common pregnancy is, it’s surprising that many are unaware of its many side effects and potential dangers.
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play