SALT LAKE CITY — The vice presidential debates are generally an afterthought to the main event, where both candidates aim to get through the night without doing any harm to their running mate.
Not this time.
Even before President Trump was admitted to the hospital, the age of the two presidential candidates meant added scrutiny of the man or woman who would step in if they became incapacitated.
“You add the performance on Tuesday when people got very little substantive information,” said Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at Iona College of last week’s presidential debate, “and I think it will mean more eyes on these vice presidential candidates.”
For Vice President Mike Pence, it is an opportunity to fill in some of the process and policy questions that got lost in last week’s chaotic clash between Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden, according to Republican strategist John Feehery.
“He needs to expose Kamala Harris as the woke leftist that she is,” he said. “The good thing about Pence is that he will let her finish her thoughts and will go on offense over things like packing the courts, the filibuster, these process things that people weren’t focused on.”
In some ways, it means doing a similar job to four years ago, when Pence was widely viewed as having bested Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine in 2016’s vice presidential debate, a clash that made up for a poor showing by Trump in the first presidential debate.
This time, campaign officials say his job will be to offer voters a clear choice between Trump’s successful economic policies and law and order positions versus the prospect of higher taxes, defunded police forces, and the “Green New Deal.”
“The Harris-Biden ticket is vulnerable on all these policy issues,” added Feehery. “If Pence can make this a policy discussion instead of a personality discussion, he’ll win the debate.”
Aides also believe his experience at the heart of the Trump administration gives him a deep grounding in policy and detail. Having headed the White House Coronavirus Task Force, he will be well rehearsed in parrying questions on the president’s handling of the pandemic.
The challenge will be whether Harris’s experience as a prosecutor gives her an edge in upsetting the vice president’s unhurried style, according to Pence’s biographer Tom LoBianco, who is the Washington correspondent for Business Insider.
“The question for him is whether Harris will let him filibuster the way he often does on the debate stage or in interviews when he gets a question he doesn’t like. If there’s one politician who knows how to stretch a single answer out over 15 minutes, it’s Vice President Mike Pence,” he said.
How well his performance is judged, added LoBianco, may depend on Pence’s ultimate objective.
“The bigger question for Pence is whether he can loosen up a bit and find the type of character and rhythm that he will need to shine in a 2024 Republican primary,” he said.
“His first job is trying to win reelection, which would best position him for the 2024 Republican nomination. But there’s also the distinct chance he loses his national platform as VP shortly, giving this debate even more importance for him and his ambitions.”
