New York: Democrat Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris brought the forensic skills of a prosecutor to the debate trying to overshadow incumbent Vice President Mike Pence as they faced off on the national stage, attempting to pin each other to policies they would avoid while deflecting hard questions.
The debate with a veneer of politeness on Wednesday night in Salt Lake City, Utah, was a marked contrast to the September 29 presidential debate where President Donald Trump was overbearing and traded insults with his Democratic rival Joe Biden.
A former prosecutor and the Attorney General of California, Harris was more at ease during the debate.
Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican African descent, was expressive during the debate unlike the strait-laced Pence.
She made expansive gestures and her face reflectedAemotions as she spoke, and she sniggered or smiled deprecatingly while an almost wooden-faced Pence talked.
Both interrupted each other at times but got through it without rancour. They ended up with almost equal speaking time.
Harris tried to hang what she said were Trump’s failings and mis-statements around Pence’s neck, and he attempted to nail her to the Democratic Party’s extreme left.
For Harris, it was also an audition for the presidency. Biden will be 78 years old if wins the election and is sworn-in in January, making him the oldest person to hold the presidency.
Harris is 55 years old and is widely expected to back him given his age and questions over his memory.
Although she has participated in Democratic debates while running for the party nomination – memorably hitting out at Biden on the race issue at one of them – this was the first time she was on a one-on-one debate with a national leader.
Harris recalled her mother and her Indian immigrant background when she spoke about the moment Biden asked her to be his running mate.
“I thought about my mother, who came to the United States at the age of 19, gave birth to me at the age of 25 at the Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California.
Black fly sits atop Mike’s white head, steals show
The vice presidential debate on Wednesday had plexiglass barriers to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but they couldn’t stop the night’s most talked-about intruder – a giant stray housefly that perched on Vice President Mike Pence’s cropped white hair for over two minutes, generating buzz online.
While US President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus was the elephant in the room during the debate between Pence and his Democratic rival Senator Kamala Harris, it was Pence’s six-legged companion and the pinkness in his left eye that lit up Twitter. (Agencies)
