Delve deeper into the US President odds and you’ll find that it’s not just about who will be elected as the next president, but also who will win the race to get into office as Vice-President. Joe Biden has Kamala Harris in his corner, mirroring his views, whilst current Vice-President Mike Pence sits beneath Trump as his running mate.
The vice-presidential debate came after the first of the presidential debates, proving to be a lot less hostile than the debacle between Trump and Biden. Harris and Pence met in Utah for their one-off debate, with the responsibility of advancing their superior running mate’s campaign. And, with Trump dragging his feet in the polls, Pence was under a considerable amount of pressure to defend the President’s reputation.
Unavoidably, coronavirus was the first topic to be thrown at the vice-presidential candidates. The pair were separated by both distance and Plexiglass barriers, a reminder that the issue is still very real. Harris stayed focussed on the death toll of the virus, speaking of the millions of people affected, she said:
“Here are the facts: 210,000 dead people in our country in just the last seven months. Over 7 million who have contracted this disease.
“We’re looking at over 30 million people who in the last seven months had to file for unemployment”
Harris then brought President Trump into the picture, alongside Pence, suggesting that both Republicans knew about the severity of Covid-19 back in January, yet chose to “downplay the virus”.
Pence also took the brunt of Harris’ criticism of Trump’s intentions to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, formerly known as Obamacare. Pence argued against this claim, adding that Trump was still planning to protect people with pre-existing conditions. However, this is something that’s been said by both Trump and his administration several times over the years, with no further evidence of it actually coming to fruition, so, Harris’ suspicions can be somewhat justified.
Whilst both Harris and Pence seemed to be well-prepared to answer any question that was sent their way, there were a couple that seemed to touch a nerve. Neither candidate seemed to want to provide an answer for if they would be prepared to step in on behalf of their supposed President if they were to fall ill – perhaps making a nod to Donald Trump’s recent coronavirus diagnosis.
Leading the debate away from its more serious nature was perhaps the star of the show – a fly. Whilst it’s usually the women that are heavily scrutinised on their appearance, it was Mike Pence who faced the wrath of Twitter’s keen and judgemental eye. Towards the end of the debate, a fly decided to settle on Pence’s head, remaining unnoticed for quite some time.
Total time a fly sat on Mike Pence’s head: two minutes pic.twitter.com/PtI0rKSi5I
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 8, 2020
Along with fly-gate, viewers also seem to be commenting on Pence’s left eye, claiming that it had some distinct pinky-red tones surrounding it – leading to “pink eye” even trending on the popular social media platform! It was also pointed out that conjunctivitis, otherwise known as “pink eye” could be a symptom of the coronavirus.
Of course, this is just speculation. And it should be noted that, prior to the debate, Pence’s staff had insisted that the current Vice-President had recently tested negative for the virus.
