By Nicholette Marbley
The VP Debate was held at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on October 7th and had over 58 million views making it the 2nd highest viewed VP debate in US history. While most experts say, the VP debate doesn’t matter, over 4 million people cast their votes due to COVID concerns, giving the 2 debaters added pressure to solidify their base and swing voters. The debate was traditional and reignited the familiar feeling of the conventional political stage Americans are used to. There was no name-calling, blatant lies, and childlike comments. For the most part, both candidates were polite. Here is a summary of topics that received an astronomical amount of online words and social media hashtags from US viewers, the issues the candidates dodged, the bent truths, the strengths and weakness of each candidate, and the overall winner.
COVID-19
VP Pence: Thought that stopping international travel, put the US in the right spot. He trusts the American people will make good choices and that we do not need stricter regulations.
Senator Harris: Deemed the handling of the COVID-19 crisis, “The greatest failure of any presidential administration in US history” And claims, 210,000 US citizens have died because valuable information was hidden from US citizens. She also claims Biden would make vaccines free for all Americans.
Racial Justice
VP Pence: Claimed that justice would be served regarding the murder of George Floyd, but states the U.S. does not have racial issues and believes in the US Justice System. When Harris attacked President Trump for not denouncing white supremacy in the first 2020 Presidential Debate, Pence fired back claiming that under the leadership of Harris in California, minority arrests and convictions spiked.
Senator Harris: Claimed that happened to George Floyd and Breonna Taylor was a catastrophe and promised criminal justice reform under Biden. The Senator defended her California record, claiming, under her leadership, California was one of the first states to require police officers use body cameras.
Topics The Candidates Dodged
–Would there be a peaceful transfer of power?
–Climate change.
–The Green New Deal.
–What plans would they have set in place if they were to suddenly become President?
In my opinion the topic regarding taking over as President is the only subject acceptable to skip over. The job of the VP is to highlight their bosses’ message not to mention it could cause significant securities issues to both the President and Vice President.
Fact Check
VP Pence:
Claims Joe Biden would raise taxes for all Americans, but Biden’s plan states he would only raise taxes for Americans making over 400,000 dollars a year.
Claims President Trump secured a law that saved 50 million jobs. The package that was passed in the Senate saved over 6 million jobs.
Claims universal mail-in voting will cause extreme voter fraud. The election experts confirm that voter fraud is extremely rare.
Senator Harris:
Claims President called the Coronavirus a hoax. Trump claims he was referring the Democratic Party’s response in dealing with the Coronavirus a hoax not the virus itself,
Claims that President Trump’s China trade war cost the US 300,000 manufacturing jobs. The US gained 146,000 factory jobs during the first 18 months after the tariffs were put in place.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Pence: I hated that fact that he spoke over Senator Harris times, did not try to sway undecided voters, and the fact that he probably did not bathe and or put on clean clothes before the debate(There is no way that fly should have been around him that long. A world leader that does not practice good hygiene 🤮) He did, however, do an excellent job of playing up the economy pre-COVID, solidifying the Republican base, and professionally delivering his bosses’ message.
Harris: She did not use the Presidents title while speaking of him. You should also use the President’s title when referring to them, whether you respect the person or not. It’s just the right thing to do. I also did not like that fact that she did not go into detail on many topics. This was the Senator’s chance to set the tone of, ”we have plans they don’t.” The Trump Administration can get away with that. This ticket cannot. She did well in honing in on the COVID-19 failure and gave raw, honest opinions and facts surrounding Wednesday’s debate.
Winner=Senator Harris
She solidified Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s ideals and planned with poise and confidence while putting her flair on things. She told the least lies and didn’t not talk over the Vice President. Added bonus SHE’S CLEAN!!!!! No flies in sight 😎.
