Let’s be honest. What the American people have seen in these past two weeks, in regards to both the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates, has done nothing but add on to the confusing and frustrating year that we’ve experienced.
2020 has not only been one egregious, winding year but has also proven to be a whirlwind of an election season. Last week’s presidential debate was like no other - leaving America stressed, upset, and shocked. However, looking past the comments urging the other candidate to “just shut up, man” and even the statement “don’t ever use the word smart with me,” there were some crucial policies discussed or rather mentioned, that ended up getting more time last night than they did in the first debate.
On Wednesday, the debate between current Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris proved to be slightly more civil than the debate last week. From behind the plexiglass partitions, the topics discussed included the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, once again mentioning the Green New Deal. This time, the Trump administration confidently discussed their hopeful plans for a vaccine to be produced by the end of this year, leading to Harris expressing fear of what could happen next if this vaccine is pushed by the White House, rather than credible scientists. Additionally, the hot topic of the economy was discussed again, along with mentions of China and foreign policy.
Both candidates, but especially Pence, dodged many of the questions. Many of their extended responses mainly consisted of some bash to the other administration or past responses to events, instead of directly answering the questions at hand. This was frustrating, and as a result, it seemed as if both candidates spent much of the night not just defending themselves, but generally speaking on whatever matters they chose or deemed fit.
Wednesday’s debate did fall onto the lackluster side as both candidates spent the night dodging the specific questions they were asked. Pence did as much as completely ignoring one of the questions he was asked so that he could go back to something he didn’t get to finish in a previous segment. Harris ignored questions like the one about court-packing, but also the moderator’s question on the Democratic campaign’s involvement with the Green New Deal - a topic that, like Trump did last week, Pence attacked heavily. Twelve feet away from Harris, Pence ignored questions like whether climate change is an existential threat to our world and about if he had spoken with Trump about what would happen should Trump become incapacitated in some way (primarily referring to his coronavirus diagnosis). Additionally, Pence avoided discussing what his role would be should Trump act on his statements of refusing to leave office should he lose the election, and finally, what the United States’ current relationship with China is like.
Both candidates also ignored some of the same questions. One of the more frustrating examples of this was the question regarding what they would recommend their home states (Pence, from Indiana, and Harris from California) to do should Roe v. Wade be overturned. This came following a discussion about filling the late Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg’s seat with Trump’s current nomination - Amy Coney Barrett. Additionally, both candidates virtually ignored a question surrounding the health of the older men they are running with.
Some of the key takeaways from this debate were Pence’s stance on the coronavirus response, primarily through his role as head of the White House Coronavirus Taskforce. He spent most of this section attacking Biden and Harris’s campaign and attempting to compare the Obama administration’s response to the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic to the Trump administration’s response to the current coronavirus pandemic. Most of the facts he stated during this time were purely based on estimates and speculation. Looking at the facts compared to what Pence presented, this use of the Swine Flu epidemic was not very effective or substantial, considering both diseases have extraordinary differences.
Senator Harris urged Americans Wednesday night to think back to the beginnings of this pandemic and how their lives abruptly changed. In criticizing the Trump administration’s response to this pandemic, especially in the very beginning before case numbers in the United States rose, she revealed the Biden campaign’s plan to control the virus should they be elected. Using this strategy of taking the way President Trump has handled things during his presidency and comparing it to the values of the Biden/Harris campaign, especially with Trump’s tax information recently being released and his interactions with foreign nations, Harris attempted to pave the way for what the next four years could look like in this country. Additionally, her remarks on the lack of justice specifically on the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd cases, brought another key issue of the handling of racial injustice to light. Where Pence could not admit that there are inherent biases in our country, especially in our justice system, and also could not acknowledge the systemic racism that is very present in our current climate, Harris made this a key issue, indicating that when elected, the Biden administration would immediately take action on these items.
Throughout the debate, Vice President Pence proved to be very effective in bulldozing the other candidate’s statements and speaking time, similar to how President Trump acted last week. However, the difference was that he did tend to back off after getting his point across, different from his running mate. Senator Harris seemed to have been a little more docile, generally following the instructions of the moderator, Susan Page, from USA Today.
With the next Presidential debate still up in the air, following President Trump’s recent COVID-19 diagnosis, the topics covered and stances taken by both parties have more of an importance than they did previously, considering this may have been the last debate of the 2020 election. What’s to come is unknown, but Wolfprints will keep you updated with what happens next.
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