The debate was a significant cultural and historic moment.
The debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris had its moments but keeping with tradition both candidates protected their flank and didn’t stray off the line.
The debate was a draw although some might argue the “fly” that landed on Pence’s head and stayed nearly two minutes was the real winner symbolising so much that was left unsaid. But the debate was a significant cultural and historic moment. Harris is the first African and Indian American woman to be a VP candidate for a major party and be on the national stage. She had to simultaneously walk many fine lines — to not appear too aggressive, too intelligent or too dismissive while debating a well-established white male. In other words, she carried the burden of an entire culture war on her shoulders.
The mandate for both was to defend the top of the ticket — President Donald Trump and Democratic Party challenger Joe Biden — and not make headlines while establishing their credentials at the same time. In doing so Harris and Pence limited themselves to set pieces for the most part no matter what the question and avoided traps. As a result the debate is unlikely to move the needle one way or another. Biden remains ahead in almost all the national polls and Trump has an enormous task with less than a month to voting day. The question is whether the two vice presidential candidates can add that special sauce to the mix.
Harris is smart, agile and in command of the facts. More importantly, Biden lets her be and shine. Trump on the other hand has an enormous need to be the news himself. Within hours of the VP debate before Pence could be heralded by conservatives as a “hero,” the president grabbed the news cycle by declaring he won’t agree that his second debate with Biden be a “virtual debate.”
Trump’s insatiable appetite to be feted and his belief that he simply will things to be a certain way – the virus to go away — have a cost to the campaign. But no one can tell him to stay quarantined — not even his doctor — and show empathy to the people who have lost loved ones to the pandemic.
Yet, it’s not clear which way the winds are blowing. The polls have consistently favoured Biden since early 2020 but Trump has a way of appealing to a part of American psyche that is inexplicable. His coalition of voters remains smaller than Biden’s but having a large coalition doesn’t necessarily ensure victory. Young voters, especially those who wanted a more progressive candidate, remain somewhat unenthusiastic about Biden.
In addition, many Americans who are hurting and want the economy to reopen faster are not happy about another complete shutdown which some of the Democrats have talked about to control the pandemic. On the other hand, Trump’s message is: we shall overcome one day but in the meantime let’s continue the way we were.
It’s this complex scenario in which the two VP candidates debated on Wednesday. They had to bow to the base, convince the skeptics, and attract people from that thin slice of “undecided” and “swing” voters to seal the deal on November 3.
Harris started out strong but didn’t annihilate Pence as many had predicted. She got boxed in on the question of raising taxes and on “packing” the Supreme Court by increasing the number of justices, an idea being pushed by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. But she had a few meme-worthy lines that will resonate among women voters. “Mr. Vice President, I am speaking” will be one such, distilling the experience of millions of women who are constantly interrupted by men. “They are coming for you,” will be another in which Harris warned voters about losing healthcare benefits under a second Trump administration.
Pence deflected, dodged and avoided answering the most important question of the debate: Why is the US per capita death toll from Covid-19 among the highest in the world? He also didn’t answer a direct question about committing to a peaceful transfer of power just as Trump did not during his chaotic debate with Biden. But the job for Pence was to put the best face on Trump’s handling of the pandemic, an issue on which the president is sliding down in the polls. Pence simply changed the subject every time, using the oldest trick in the book and steamrollering the moderator — a woman.
Whether the Trump campaign admits it or not, the virus is on top of the list of concerns among voters along with the economy. The administration’s inability to control the virus after nearly eight months tells its own story. It looks even worse now that Trump himself is infected in addition to more than 15 others in the White House. The outbreak has highlighted Trump’s attitude towards safety protocols and the history of downplaying the pandemic. Pence, as the head of White House Corona Virus Taskforce, bears special responsibility for the haphazard and often overly political response to advocating safety regulations driven by electoral needs.
But as the more disciplined version of Trump, Pence delivered on the most important job during the debate — to try to “normalise” the last four years and pretend all was going well with America. He mentioned the talking points that appeal to the base — taxes, conservative justices on the Supreme Court, abortion and law and order. Many saw him as the perfectly acceptable and adequate version of the boss he serves with utmost public devotion.
For Harris, the idea was to drill down on the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic, which she did in her opening salvo, and kept at it through the 90 minutes. She gave the grim statistics — 210,000 dead, 30 million unemployed and businesses going under. She called it the “greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country.”
This vice-presidential debate was arguably more important than others because both Trump and Biden are in their 70s and there is a remote possibility Pence or Harris might have to step in. On that account, both Democrats and Republicans seem satisfied with the performance art on display.
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Seema Sirohi is a columnist based in Washington DC. She writes on US foreign policy in relation to South Asia. Seema has worked with several ...
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