Vice President Mike Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris faced off for the first and last vice presidential debate of the 2020 election. It’s important to make the distinction here that by “faced off,” I mean behind two sheets of plexiglass like a prison inmate meeting with someone from the outside world.
That being said, here are the main highlights from the vice presidential debate.
1) Since no one will remember what was said during the debate years from now, we will remember that a star was born. I’m not talking about Pence, Harris, or even the moderator Susan Page. I’m talking about this debate-bombing fly. Yes, a fly that landed on Vice President Pence’s head was the star of the show. It was on the vice president’s head for so long that it became the only entity in the debate to respect the rules by lasting exactly two minutes uninterrupted before flying away.
Of course, it was difficult for the audience to pay attention to anything after that since Mike Pence was no longer vice president, but Lord of the Flies.
2) Compared to the first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, this was an actual debate, not a food fight. Pence and Harris were civil towards each other, and even Pence commended Harris for the historic nature of being the first Black and Asian American woman to be the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
3) In spite of the civility, both Pence and Harris dodged virtually every question asked by the debate moderator. Instead of answering the questions, Pence attacked Harris and tried to force her to defend Biden’s positions or the radical Left, attempting to expose the daylight between her and Biden. Meanwhile, Harris lobbed attacks at Pence for the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and accused both the vice president and president of engaging in rampant corruption.
When asked about the Supreme Court, Harris, like Biden, dodged the question on whether or not a Biden-Harris administration would pack the court, which is basically adding more seats to the highest court in the land. In the same token, Pence avoided answering the question on the hypothetical idea of Roe v. Wade being overturned and whether or not he feels his home state of Indiana should ban abortion.
4) Finally, it may appear like this vice presidential debate matters, but historically speaking, it almost never does. Not even Lloyd Bentsen’s line “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy” against Dan Quayle could save Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election against George H.W. Bush.
That being said, Harris performed much better than in the Democratic primary debates, but Pence was, as usual, cool as a cucumber. It’s a reminder that the best defender of Joe Biden is Joe Biden, and the best defender of Donald Trump is Mike Pence.
