The velvet-voiced Pence gets vice president debate job done for Trump; also, the Harris ‘I’m speaking’ jab

A few hours before the only vice presidential debate Wednesday night, President Donald Trump must have figured he needed to hedge his bet on Mike Pence, who led the administration response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

So Trump released a video downplaying the COVID-19 crisis by minimizing his own diagnosis and recent hospitalization, saying his illness was a “blessing in disguise.”

Anyway, if you get the virus as he did, “you’re going to get better really fast.”

Trump also promised free distribution to anybody in a hospital who wants it of the experimental drug he took made by Regeneron.

“They gave me Regeneron. And it was like, unbelievable. I felt good.”

That was Trump sort of channeling James Brown just before the Mike Pence and Kamala Harris showdown at the University of Utah at Salt Lake City, taking place while people are already voting.

In contrast to the Trump and Joe Biden debate, which Trump upended by loudly bulldozing past Joe Biden and moderator Chris Wallace, the vice presidential clash demonstrated how pros can stick a shiv in an opponent and dodge questions while being civil.

The velvet-voiced Pence, aware of the landmines in interrupting a female during a debate, slipped a few times and Harris pounced. “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking,” she shot. And when it happened a second time a bit later, she said again, “I’m speaking, OK?” with a dazzling smile to make sure no one thought she was shrill.

Pence came into the debate with the much harder job, since the Trump campaign is at its lowest point, in large part because the coronavirus pandemic health and economic crisis continues. The tight side-by-side head shot did not show the plexiglass COVID-19 shields on the stage.

The White House is a COVID-19 hot spot. The Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court nomination ceremony at the White House was a likely superspreader event. Moderator Susan Page, the USA Today Washington Bureau chief, kicked off the debate with COVID-19 questions, so Trump’s gaming it out was not wasted.

Harris slammed the Trump/Pence administration handling of the pandemic. She said they “covered it up” and the response was so poor, the administration has “forfeited their right to reelection.”

Pence, for his part, said the Biden COVID-19 proposals — contact tracing, testing and getting a vaccine — was just a copy of what the Trump team had been doing.

“It looks a little bit like plagiarism,” he said. “Which Joe Biden knows something about.” Pence’s jab may have been lost on voters who did not get the reference to Biden’s 1988 first presidential bid.

Bottom line 1. Harris did fine but should have had a more robust agenda on what a Biden White House would do on COVID-19. She diffused Pence’s assertion that Democrats were attacking Barrett’s “Christian faith” by noting that Biden, if elected, would be only the second president who is a practicing Catholic.

Bottom line 2: Pence brought Trump back from the edge. He did no harm. And he had the good sense to not say anything about handing out an experimental COVID-19 drug to anyone who wanted it.

Advantage, Pence.