Analysis: Mike Pence vs Kamala Harris — who won the vice-presidential debate?

Mike Pence emerged the happier from the presidential undercard debate

Credit: EPA

No one watching will have thrown a shoe at the television in anger, and they might have learnt something about what’s on offer from Republicans and Democrats in this election.

Ms Harris expertly laid out the evidence against Mr Pence and Mr Trump on coronavirus as if she was in a court room. Her case was that they had failed the American people.

In doing so she also successfully walked a tightrope, managing to avoid appearing unsympathetic to the president’s own diagnosis.

Perhaps Mr Pence’s most effective moment came when he turned away from his opponent and looked straight into the camera, reassuring Americans who have lost loved ones that they were in his prayers. And then he emphasised that it was China’s fault, not his. See the video below.

Ms Harris tried other points of attack, notably on the Trump administration’s attempt to overturn Obamacare.

"If you have a pre-existing condition, heart disease, diabetes, they’re coming for you," she told Americans.

But Mr Pence, more than once, was able to steer the debate to the economy, and an appeal to people’s pockets.

It was clear the one message he wanted to leave the audience with was that a Biden-Harris administration would raise taxes "on day one".

Regardless of Ms Harris’s protestations he rammed home that "the economy is on the ballot".

US output is projected to be 4.8pc higher under Biden’s economic plan, creating 18m jobs

Vice-presidential debates are usually of little consequence. All the combatants have to do is attack, and defend, the people on the top of their tickets, while showing they are competent to take over in an emergency.

Perhaps the only truly memorable moment in such a debate, since they began in 1976, came in 1988 when Lloyd Bentsen told Dan Quayle: "Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy."

But this time it was different. Mr Pence or Ms Harris could be called on to assume the presidency before the next election 2024.

If not, they may well be in poll position to be their party’s nominee in that election. In that context what Mr Pence did tonight was significant.

He tied himself to Mr Trump with no equivocations, no daylight between them, and no attempt to appeal to the moderates within his party. That means, should Mr Trump lose on November 3, Mr Pence will emerge not as a Republican consensus candidate, but as the carrier of the Trump flame.