Vice-President Mike Pence will square off against Senator Kamala Harris at the only vice-presidential debate of the 2020 election, at a moment of extraordinary uncertainty for the US in the wake of the president’s hospitalization for coronavirus.
Donald Trump’s diagnosis with a potentially fatal disease brought renewed focus to the advanced age of the septuagenarian presidential candidates ahead of Wednesday night’s debate in Salt Lake City. Trump is 74 and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, is 77.
As such, Wednesday’s match serves not only as a preview of the leading presidential contenders in 2024, but as a grim reminder that the role of vice-president is to succeed the president should he become incapacitated or die while in office.
Given the uncertainty hanging over future presidential debates due to the president’s infection, Pence and Harris will be under additional pressure to articulate their campaign messages.
Pence, head of the White House’s coronavirus taskforce, will almost certainly be called upon to defend the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic that has killed more than 210,000 Americans and infected millions more, including the president of the United States and many top White House officials.
Polls show that a majority of Americans no longer trust Trump to handle the virus and blame his administration for failing to control it. Trump, who claimed he had “learned a lot” about the virus from his own experience with it, has since downplayed its severity, likening it to the flu and urging Americans not to be afraid of it.
In a video shared shortly before the debate on Wednesday, Trump called his infection a “blessing from God” and said everyone should have access to the experimental treatment he was given during his hospitalization.
Harris, who was elected to the Senate in 2016 and unsuccessfully ran for president against Biden last year, will be the first woman of color to participate in a vice-presidential debate. Over the course of 90 minutes, she will attempt to make the case that the Trump administration has failed in its response to the coronavirus, without going too far to antagonize the president while his prognosis remains unclear.
In a sign of the extent to which the outbreak has reshaped the 2020 campaign, the candidates will be seated 12ft apart and separated by plexiglass dividers. The Pence campaign initially objected but ultimately acceded to the measure. Everyone in the audience will be required to wear a mask.
The vice-president has tested negative for Covid, but there was some question about whether he should participate in the debate given his potential exposure. The virus has now infected several members of the White House staff, as well as several US senators and military officials.
The candidates have spent weeks preparing. Harris, a former prosecutor, has gained a national reputation for her sharp cross-examination of powerful men – from administration officials who came before the Senate judiciary committee to Biden, whom she confronted during a primary debate last year.
In 2016, Pence delivered a clean performance, skillfully defending Trump while relentlessly attacking Hillary Clinton. Since then, he has proven to be a loyal lieutenant of the president and a more disciplined messenger of the administration’s agenda.
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