Salt Lake City, United States—For once in their rollercoaster US presidential election, principals Donald Trump and Joe Biden yield the spotlight Wednesday to Vice President Mike Pence and the Democrat seeking his job, Kamala Harris, as they debate for the first time.
With Trump infected with the coronavirus that has already killed more than 210,000 Americans, the Pence-Harris showdown has taken on an unusually pressing quality, given that the White House deputy is just a heartbeat away from the presidency.
The duel in Salt Lake City occurs as the nation lurches from one crisis to another.
Not only has the president tested positive; coronavirus has spread through his inner circle, infecting dozens of top advisors, administration staff, senior military officials and Republican lawmakers.
Racial and political tensions are simmering, prompting Biden to issue a clarion call for national unity Tuesday and warn that “the forces of darkness” and division are “pulling us apart.”
Trump killed the Covid stimulus negotiations on the same day, assuring no new relief will reach millions of suffering families and countless struggling businesses until after the November 3 election.
The trade deficit widened to its highest level in 14 years, Trump keeps warning that mail-in ballots are somehow fraudulent, and Senate Republicans are rushing to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominee even as some in their caucus are in quarantine.
The unique political storm is enough for Brookings Institution senior fellow John Hudak to call Utah’s face-off nothing less than “the most important vice presidential debate in American history.”
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh acknowledged Harris will be a formidable opponent, given her experience in the Democratic primaries and US Senate.
And “remember she was a prosecutor,” he told Fox News on Tuesday.
But Pence will be “very well-prepared,” Murtaugh added. “It’s going to be an opportunity to expose the radical leftist agenda that Biden and Harris are carrying.”