It was a low bar, but they cleared it.
Following last week’s chaotic presidential debate, Vice President Mike Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris held a comparably civil conversation that — at least some of the time — included actual substance on a swath of topics ranging from abortion to police violence.
Here’s a quick look at some of the highlights:
On the COVID-19 pandemic:
Harris: “The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country. ... They knew what was happening and they didn’t tell you.”
Pence: “President Donald Trump did what no other American president had ever done. That was, he suspended all travel from China, the second largest economy in the world. … That decision alone by President Trump bought us invaluable time to set up the greatest national mobilization since World War II.”
On a potential COVID-19 vaccine:
Pence: “The reality is that we’re going to have a vaccine in record time, in unheard of time — in less than a year. … The reality is that we will have a vaccine, we believe, before the end of this year.”
Harris: “If the doctors tell us that we should take it, I’ll be the first in line to take it, absolutely. But if Donald Trump tells us I should, [that] we should take it — I’m not taking it.”
On relations with China:
Harris: “The President’s trade war with China — you lost that trade war, you lost it. What ended up happening is because of a so-called trade war with China, America lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs.”
Pence: “Joe Biden has been a cheerleader for communist China over the last several decades. … When Joe Biden was vice president we lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs.”
On the Breonna Taylor case
Pence: “The family of Brianna Taylor has our sympathies. But I trust our justice system — and a grand jury that refused the evidence.”
Harris: “I’m a former career prosecutor, I know what I’m talking about bad cops are bad for good cops. We need reform of our policing in America and our criminal justice system.”
On if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the Roe v. Wade decision:
Harris: “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 Vice President Mike Pence.”
Pence: “I couldn’t be more proud to serve as vice president to a president who stands without apology for the sanctity of human life.”
On the appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court:
Harris: “Joe has been very clear as the American people are: Let the American people fill that seat in the White House. And then we’ll fill that seat on the United States Supreme Court.”
Pence: “We hope she gets a fair hearing. We particularly hope that we don’t see the kind of attacks on her Christian faith that we saw before. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said that it was a concern.”
Lea este artículo en español en La Voz Chicago.
