Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris’s Wednesday debate sets up a clash between two figures with vocally opposite views on abortion and religious freedom.
While the bulk of the debate is likely to scrutinize whether Pence and Harris are up to the task of the presidency, the two are also poised to clash on social issues. Pence, especially in the past few months, has ramped up his attacks in these fields, adding to his stump speech criticisms of both Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden for their “radical” positions. These include both candidates’ opposition to the Hyde Amendment, a legislative proviso which bars federally funded abortions, as well as Biden’s promise to resume a long-running fight with the Little Sisters of the Poor over an Obama-era contraception mandate.
When the Biden campaign announced Harris as his running mate, Pence first addressed the pick during a campaign speech to a socially conservative Mormon crowd in Arizona. The vice president sent a message to Harris: “I’ll see you in Salt Lake City,” joking that the debate’s venue, a mostly Mormon city, would be to his advantage.
Harris, for her part, is known as a fierce debater, notably scoring a direct hit on Biden during the Democratic primary debates. Harris is also expected to make use of her skills picked up as a prosecutor, demonstrated in her tough line of questioning to President Trump’s judicial nominees, notably Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
These same skills, however, have recently opened Harris to lines of attack from Pence. In early October, the vice president slammed Harris for so-called religious tests that she posed to judicial nominees who are members of the Catholic fraternal organization the Knights of Columbus. Harris, in her questions, which earned her censure from Senate Republicans, had asked if several nominees would forfeit their membership in the Knights because of its stances against abortion and gay marriage.
Pence, while speaking at the Faith & Freedom Coalition Policy Conference in Iowa, called attacks such questions an “assault on our religious liberty.”
“Men and women who cherish faith and freedom: These attacks on our freedom of religion must stop,” Pence said after name-checking Harris. “The American people cherish the freedom of religion of every American of every faith.”
Harris’s criticism of conservative Catholics returned to the spotlight last month after Trump nominated judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill a Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Harris, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, will participate in the Barrett confirmation hearings, drawing attention to her role in shaping the Supreme Court.
Harris, when Trump chose Barrett, emphasized that she “strongly” disagreed with the pick, pointing to abortion access as one of the main reasons why.
