Normally I say that Vice-Presidential debates are meaningless but not this year. Kamala Harris is not only the Veep nominee but is in effect President-in-Waiting to Joe Biden who most people expect to be unable to serve out a full term.
Last time around Mike Pence handed a lop sided defeat to Tim Kaine, one of the more forgettable Veep nominees in US history. It is easy to underestimate the quiet and gentlemanly Pence who resides in the large shadow cast by Trump, but he is often more than shrewd and he has been at politics for a very long time. Harris since her nomination has been emulating Biden in keeping a very low profile. That is of course by design as Harris is farther left than Biden and is on the ticket purely because Biden made the reckless promise to fill the Veep slot with a woman of color. I will be giving a running commentary tonight. The debate begins tonight at 8:00 PM Central Daylight Time.
8:05 Debate starts. Sitting at desks? Fairly odd for a debate.
8:07 Harris-softball corona virus question. What would a Biden administration do differently? Harris mentions the dead and economic difficulties. Thirty million filed for unemployment. Blames it all on the Trump administration. Claims that Biden has a plan. Contact tracing and vaccine.
Pence-Moderator mentions 210,000 dead. Pence thanks everybody. Always polite. Defends Trump. Mentions Trumps quick suspension of travel from China. Mentions Biden condemned the decision as xenophobic. Bought time. Mentions development of vaccine. Predicts vaccine before the end of the year. Accuses Biden of plagiarizing Trump plan.
Harris-Claims that whatever Trump has done hasn’t worked. Mentions for the third time the death toll.
Pence-thinks about the dead every day. Says that the American people have made a great effort against Covid. Denies that what Trump has done hasn’t worked. Pence ignores moderator’s attempts to cut him off.
8:16 Moderator asks Pence how you can expect the American people to follow the health guidelines when the White House doesn’t (Yep, another two on one debate.) Pence responds effectively. Kamala Harris accuses the administration of lying and of incompetence.
8:19Vaccine question to Harris. Will take the vaccine if doctors approve it, not if Trump approves it.
8:20Asks Pence if Trump has talked to him about presidential disability. Pence ignores the moonbat question and talks about the preparation of the vaccine. Accuses Harris of playing politics with people’s lives. Good going on the offensive. Pence attacks Biden on the swineflu debacle.
8:23Asks Harris the same question about presidential disability. Harris is blathering without directly addressing the question. Weak. Should have ignored the question and attacked Pence. Gives her canned bio. She is not fast on her feet.
8:25Asks about medical information on Trump and Biden. Claims that Trump’s medical team gave misleading information. (Moderator as debate participant.) Pence turns the question around and thanks people for their well wishes for Trump.
8:28Harris ignores questions and talks about Trump’s taxes. Claims that Biden has been transparent about his health. Gag!
Pence defends Trump as a businessman who has paid tens of millions of dollars in taxes. Contrasts Trump as businessman as opposed to Biden the professional politician.
8:30Question about economy to Harris. Asks if raising taxes as Biden proposes would put the economic recovery at risk. Harris claims that Trump is for the stock market and Biden is for main street. Biden will repeal the Trump tax breaks and help ordinary people. Free college education! Pay off 10K on student loan debt.
Pence talks about the Trump economic record. Trump cut taxes. Average family has saved 2k on taxes. On day one Biden would raise your taxes. Praises the rapid economic recovery after the lockdowns. Bury the economy under the Green New Deal, ban fracking and end the use of fossil fuels. Biden wants to end the tariffs that protect American workers.
8:35Harris begins speaking. Pence interrupts and asks if Biden will repeal the Trump tax cuts on average families. Harris denies that Biden would ban fracking. Harris attacks the Trump economic record. Praises Obamacare. Hits pre-existing conditions hard.
Pence says Obamacare has been a disaster. Points out that Harris said that she would ban fracking. Biden has said the same thing.
8:39Climate change question. (Give me a break.) Moderator claims that climate change makes wild fires and hurricanes more severe. (Complete ignorance.) Pence defends a free market approach. Pence brings up fracking again. As to wild fires forest management is importance. Hurricanes are not more severe.
8:42Question about the Green New Deal. Harris denies that Biden will not ban fracking. (Obviously the Biden campaign is concerned about losing Pennsylvania.) Joe believes in science. Not a word about the Green New Deal yet. Joe has a plan.
8:45Pence says that Biden is going to raise taxes. Pence repeats that Biden has said he will ban fracking. Pence rams the Green New Deal down Harris’ throat.
8:46Harris attacks the trade war with China. She obviously fails to understand how popular the trade war has been with blue collar Union members. Siding with China is a bad look.
Pence-Biden has been a cheerleader for China. Pence won that round.
Harris-Biden saved the auto industry. (Michigan looking at you.)
8:50China question to Biden. Trump renegotiated Nafta. Harris voted against the US renegotiation of the treaty. Says that Harris is the most liberal member of the Senate. China is to blame for the corona virus. China and the Who did not play straight with the American people. Trump has stood up to China. China will be held accountable.
Harris-mentions the death toll for the four times. Trade war with China was a failure. American consumers paying more for goods. Other nations hold the President of China in greater esteem than President Trump.
8:55Question about American leadership in foreign policy. Harris: Trump has betrayed our friends and embraced our enemies. Resurrects the Russian smear. Claims Trump is an isolationist.
Pence=Trump moved embassy to Jerusalem. Trump has strengthened our alliances with our allies bearing more of the burden. Destruction of ISIS. Mentions that the parents of Kayla Mueller are present. Brought her killers to death and justice. Iran Nuclear Deal was terrible.
8:59 Harris talks about Solemani. Attacks Trump as calling soldiers as suckers and losers. Attacks Trump for dissing John McCain.
Pence-Slanders against Trump. Pence has a son and a son-in-law serving. Moderator loses it as time cop.
Question about Supreme Court and Roe v. Wade. What would Pence want Indiana to do if Roe is overturned. Pence talks about Solemani. Biden and Harris criticized the decision. Biden was against the raid on Osama. Praises Amy Coney Barrett. Hope she gets a fair hearing. Hopes there are no attacks on her faith. Brings up that Harris attacked a judicial nominee for belonging to the Knights of Columbus.
9:06Harris-Attacks nominating a Supreme Court Justice this close to an election. Harris is abortion uber alles. Harris goes back to Obamacare. Hits pre-existing conditions again.
9:12Moderator asks about pre-existing conditions. Asks Pence how the Trump administration would do this. Pence praises Trump for standing up for the sanctity of life. Biden and Harris are in favor of third term abortions and public funding of abortions. Pence asks Harris about court packing. Points out she and Biden have refused to answer the question.
Harris does not answer the court packing question. Claims that the Trump administration has packed the courts. Pence says it is obvious that Biden and Harris plans to pack the Supreme Court.
9:14Question about Breonna Taylor. Harris goes into Black Lives Matter mode. Praises peaceful protests. Does not condone violence. Need police reform. Ban choke holds and carotid holds. Get rid of private jails and cash bails.
Pence-Trusts Justice system and that the Grand Jury got it right. No excuse what happened to George Floyd. No excuse for rioting and looting. Mentions a hair salonist who is present whose hair salon was burned to the ground. Trump administration stands with police. Points out that Harris opposed Tim Scott’s police reform bill.
9:19Harris touts herself as a tough prosecutor. Claims that Trump refuses to condemn white supremacists. Repeats the Charlottesville slur.
Pence-points out that Trump has many times condemned white supremacists. Points out that the President has a Jewish daughter and son-in-law and Jewish grandchildren. Attacks Harris’ record as a prosecutor.
Harris defends her record.
9:24Question about Trump refusing to accept election results. (Once again two against one.)
Harris talks about the number of Republicans that support Trump. Vote early. Will stop Trump from subverting democracy.
Pence: Plans to win the election. Trump has launched a movement. Pence goes into vote Trump mode. Points out that the Democrats have spent the last three and a half years seeking to overturn the 2026 election. Points out Biden’s role. Hillary Clinton has told Biden not to concede. Pence has confidence in winning.
9:30 Last question written by an eighth grader (gag!) Can’t we all get along question:
Pence praises the dumb question. America believes in free and open debate. Mentions the friendship of Ginsburg and Scalia. We can disagree and then come together as Americans.
Harris praises the dumb question. Joe Biden after Charlottesville decided to run. (Gag me. Biden has been running for President since 1988). Biden is such a great guy.
Good debate. Pence won it.
Better you than me.
October 7 was first called “Our Lady of Victory”. It would be wonderful if Our Lady would aid Pence tonight and bring a decisive Victory again for the people of God… the wind (the media) may have to shift direction somehow. Miracle required.
Pence is refreshingly aggressive.
Agreed Greg, surprisingly so.
Confidence, calmness and control.
Pence made it count. His example of the late supreme court justices and their relationships scored big with me. Kamala fell short and flat in her reply to the Jr. High student’s question.
I commend the VP on a great debate performance.
Tonight was worth watching.
..so I liked the response to the dumb question… :>)
Pointing out the waist of time, 3 1/2 years, that the dems spent throwing everything at Trump was also very important. [To remind viewers..imo.]
Nobody cared what Amy Carter thought 40 years ago.
That anybody would care what this anonymous present day Amy Carter thinks, is a mark to our detriment.
No. We can’t all get along. That’s just the truth. That’s always been the truth. The fact that we can’t admit that, or even be allowed to explain why that’s the case (because “gotcha!” trumps “context” every time) is proof positive that we’re living in an irrational age.
Ernst Schreiber.
Forty years ago I was 19.
Our civility, domestically speaking, wasn’t as fractured as it is today. At least not as I can recall it.
The dumb question resonated with me because the hatred has manifested itself to a point where civil war speak isn’t considered hyperbole.
BLM movement isn’t helping itself when it publicly interferes with patrons at a restaurant to join there chant…in intimidating zeal…however that is only one example.
Anti-War, Vietnam era, had it’s sparks too, and the division was tangible.
My point is that 8th graders are witnessing a world coming apart.
I hope we never get too stupid as to try to resolve conflicts by having to interrupt a neighbors night out or burn their business to the ground or shoot a stranger in chest because of a difference in opinions.
I hope we can overcome our differences in opinions in a way that teaches all children that the loudest and most aggressive and violent activity isn’t how one manages to influence another.
Otherwise they only see an animal nature in humanity. Not the spiritual. The higher nature.
God help us…..
No. We can’t all get along. That’s just the truth.
Actually, people get along every day. It’s a single-digit sliver of the population that’s causing 100% of the trouble. Democratic voters who would never pull this cr!p in their daily lives have a contemptible disposition to this, making excuses for it and voting in such a way that it continues.