Highlights from the Vice-Presidential Debate Between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris

Vice President Mike Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris faced off in the vice-presidential debate tonight from Salt Lake City, Utah at the University of Utah. The 90-minute debate featured various topics including questions on the coronavirus, the economy, the Supreme Court and abortion.

Moderator Susan Page began the night by asking Senator Harris about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and what a Biden-Harris administration would do differently to respond to the outbreak.

“Would you impose new lockdowns… a federal mandate to wear masks?” Page asked.

“Our plan is about what we need to do around a national strategy for contact tracing, for testing, for administration of a vaccine and making sure it will be free for all,” Harris stated.

Vice President Pence defended the Trump Administration’s record pointing out that the president suspended all travel from China back in February and that Joe Biden had called it “xenophobic.”

Additionally, the vice president stated, “When I look at their plan that talks about advancing testing, creating new PPE and developing the vaccine, it looks a little bit like plagiarism.”

Moving on to discussion over the economy, Kamala Harris stated that the tax cuts signed into law within the first two years of the Trump Administration mainly benefited the rich.

“He passed a tax bill benefitting the top 1% and the biggest corporations of America leading to a two trillion-dollar deficit that the American people are going to have to pay for. On day one, Joe Biden will repeal that tax bill, he will get rid of it,” Harris said.

Responding, Vice President Pence defended the tax cut bill by arguing, “When President Trump and I took office, America had gone through the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression… President Trump cut taxes across the board. Despite what Senator Harris says, the average American family of four had $2,000 of savings in taxes… [and] the average household income for a family of four increased by $4,000 following President Trump’s tax cuts.”

Moving on to questions on the Supreme Court and abortion access, Senator Harris supported her position on abortion saying, “There’s the issue of choice, and I will always fight for a woman’s right to make a decision about her own body. It should be her decision and not that of Donald Trump and the Vice President Michael Pence.”

The vice president responded saying, “I couldn’t be more proud to serve as vice president to a president who stands without apology for the sanctity of human life. I’m pro-life, I don’t apologize for it… Joe Biden and Kamala Harris support taxpayer funding of abortion all the way up to the moment of birth, late-term abortion. They want to increase funding for Planned Parenthood.”

Now that the American people have had a chance to see the two candidates for vice president, the second presidential debate will be held next Thursday on October 15 at 9PM EST.

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Photo from C-SPAN

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