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The debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris begins Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and lasts 90 minutes without commercial interruptions. This will be their only debate.
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The Times will broadcast the event live, accompanied by analyzes and fact-checking by our reporters. The debate is also taking place on networks such as ABC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC and PBS.
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Susan Page, the Washington office director for USA Today, will host the debate, which will take place at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
A new campaign front on Covid-19
It’s hard to overstate how much this debate has been shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic, from President Trump’s hospitalization with the illness to the last-minute skirmish between Camps Biden and Trump over whether or not Mr Pence – the one with the white man House interacted Advisors who have since tested positive for the corona virus should stand behind a protective plexiglass screen.
Mr Pence, as head of the White House task force on coronavirus, is believed to be pressured to explain the White House’s sluggish response to a pandemic that killed over 200,000 people in the United States. Since returning from the hospital, Mr Trump has tried to rewrite the entire discussion about the pandemic, arguing that the virus is actually not that severe and that Americans should get on with their lives.
Will Mr. Pence bring Mr. Trump’s argument to Ms. Harris and the American public on Wednesday night? Many polls suggest that it defies the fears of most Americans struggling to cope with the pandemic.
It is also likely that Mr Pence has been forced to defend Mr Trump’s actions since his illness was diagnosed – leaving the hospital against the advice of many health professionals, minimizing the virus threat, and dramatically removing his mask, when he returns to the White House. The president has offered himself as evidence that Covid-19 can be beaten; does Mr. Pence agree?
For Mr Pence, it is not just a matter of adopting an argument that the President believes could help him win re-election. This will almost certainly be Mr. Trump’s final campaign. At 61, Mr. Pence wants to continue his career in politics. How he deals with these questions could define him for a long time.
How does Harris Finesse attack Trump?
Vice presidential candidates only have two things to do in a debate: Defend the person at the top of your ticket. And attack the person on top of the opposition ticket.
But that rule of thumb got a little trickier for Mrs. Harris. With Mr. Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis and his return to the White House after three nights in hospital, harsh attacks against a sick president could be politically unwise. The Biden campaign withdrew its negative advertising and attacked Mr. Trump as soon as he announced his diagnosis. Joseph R. Biden Jr. has spoken carefully about the President.
Ms. Harris, a former prosecutor and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has established herself as a tough interrogator with her questioning of officials like William P. Barr, the attorney general. She knows how to make a case. But can it attack Mr. Trump’s handling of the virus – which defined his presidency – without turning to an overly personal attack on a president battling a potentially fatal disease?
It means threading a needle. Ms. Harris was an inconsistent debater during the Democratic primary – she had some good moments and some not-so-good moments before dropping out. She has never set foot on this prominent stage.
How does Harris handle the script?
Ms. Harris, most often remembered for her debating moment with Mr. Biden during elementary school, is talented at delivering the lines of debate that have been slashed. That’s after all the same skill she developed as a prosecutor that made her a star among Democrats during Senate committee hearings that she did with Republican witnesses.
To that end, Ms. Harris arrived in Salt Lake City last Friday – the same day Mr. Trump was hospitalized – to begin preparations for the on-site debate. Karen Dunn, who prepared Senator Tim Kaine for a debate against Mr. Pence four years ago, and Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama for previous Democratic presidential debates, is leading this effort. Preparation also included Rohini Kosoglu, Symone Sanders, and Liz Allen. Pete Buttigieg, who played Mr. Pence in Ms. Harris’ preparations, was also spotted in town.
But debates aren’t standards and Ms. Harris not only has to defend her own record, but also Mr. Biden’s – and no candidate can be prepared for all eventualities, no matter how many flashcards she studies, especially in 2020.
“This time around, the point is to require some level of knowledge – if not mastery – of Joe’s record, Vice President Mike Pence’s record, Trump’s record and then of course defending my own record,” Ms. Harris said in last week Hillary Clinton’s Podcast. “So that’s different.”
In particular, Mr Biden has conducted some public rehearsals for his debates, including two televised town halls. Ms. Harris has been at the convent for the most part since she entered the ticket. The debate will be by far the freest exchange of her time as a Vice-Presidential candidate.
How race and gender play
Ms. Clinton, the only woman running a major party presidential candidate, warned Ms. Harris in so many words about the caustic role sexism will play on stage.
“You should also be prepared for the difficulty of easing your efforts, you, you personally, as the woman who will soon be our next Vice President,” said Mrs. Clinton on her podcast. “So I think, on the other hand, there will be a lot of maneuvers to try to put you in a box.”
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Oct. 7, 2020, 3:12 p.m. ET
Academic studies have shown that women face different barriers to public perception, and Ms. Harris is not just a woman, but the first woman of color on a major party ticket.
Jennifer Lawless, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia who has studied gender dynamics, said that women generally need to demonstrate that they are capable of being “bullied,” but that Ms. Harris faces an additional hurdle .
“Since she’s also a woman of color, she must also adhere to the ‘don’t look too angry’ line,” said Ms. Lawless. “These are clichés. But they are clichés because they are true. “
The meek Mr. Pence is unlikely to harass or even address gender lines like Mr. Trump could. However, the influence of the audience’s perception remains.
For months, the Trump campaign has tried to cast doubts on Mr Biden’s fitness while trying to see Ms. Harris as her true slide, the real – and more liberal – center of power in a potential White House in Biden.
“She symbolizes everything that ‘Make America Great Again’ wants to push back as a black woman,” said Ms. Lawless.
To attack or defend?
In 2016, Mr Pence had a clear three-step strategy every time his vice presidential candidate, Mr Kaine, attacked Mr Trump. He offered a quick defense of Mr. Trump (step 1); moved quickly to discuss aspirations for a Trump presidency (step 2); and launched an attack on the Democrats (Step 3).
Finding the balance between offense and defense could be a particular challenge for Mr. Pence this time around.
For one thing, after four years there is still more to defend. This would have been a very different debate nine months ago than Mr Pence could have talked about the buzzing economy, job growth and a generally confident electorate. Now Mr Pence will speak about the pandemic, the previous failure of Congress and the White House to develop a stimulus plan and an economy that has gotten out of hand.
Second, Mr. Trump has not had much luck attacking Mr. Biden so far. The former Vice President has proven to be an elusive target, certainly compared to Ms. Clinton. Maybe Mr. Pence will be more successful.
But he has a third job: to attack Mrs. Harris. Mr Trump’s efforts to portray Ms. Harris as a stalking horse for more liberal policies that would be the power behind a Biden presidency have resonated with the right. But those voters were already with Mr. Trump. Mr Pence’s job is to get them into resonance with any remaining undecided voters.
A preview of 2024?
Almost every vice presidential debate involves two elections at once: the current one and the next – because so many vice presidents and vice presidential candidates end up running for the presidency. (A short current list: John Edwards, Joe Lieberman, George HW Bush, Al Gore, and of course, Mr. Biden.)
This clash is particularly important as both Mr Pence and Mrs Harris could lead their parties given the ages of Mr Trump, 74, and Mr Biden, 77, and the specter of the coronavirus, which Mr Trump continues to recover.
Mr Biden has already spoken of himself as a “bridge” to the next generation of democratic leaders. If he wins, he will enable Mrs. Harris to cross that bridge as the first among equals among Democrats to vie for this leadership cloak.
Mr Trump has shown no interest in transitioning from power or being in the spotlight, but it is widely believed that Mr Pence has his own ambitions as president. The former governor of Indiana has mostly treated his vice presidency as an exercise – often difficult – in order not to keep political daylight between him and Mr. Trump. But many other Republicans are already circling the 2024 election looking for the cloak of Trumpism. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton built his profile, and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley was recently in New Hampshire.
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