VP Debate 2020
22 days ago, the Vice Presidential Debate between current Vice President Mike Pence and Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s pick for Vice President Senator Kamala Harris aired live, a few days after the first Presidential Debate.
Despite the fact that the Vice Presidential Debate historically does not impact voter turnout or voter opinion on who they support, the 2020 Vice Presidential Debate amassed over 20 million more views than the 2016 Vice Presidential Debate between Pence and then-Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine.
As expected, the debate did little to actually impact voters in any substantive way, but in the aftermath of the first failed Presidential Debate that universally got bad reviews, it was expected that more eyes would be on the Vice Presidential Debate than normal.
Other than the fly that landed on Vice President Pence’s head, and the facial expressions Kamala Harris made throughout the night, not much was notable.
Kamala Harris deflected giving an answer on whether or not the Biden campaign if they win the upcoming Presidential election, would “pack the court” in response to the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the vacant Supreme Court Seat.
At no point during the debate, the fact that Trump is currently, and has been, trailing behind Biden in support nationally.
This could be due to the fact that back in 2016, Hillary Clinton had been leading Donald Trump in support, but still lost the electoral college vote.
The Trump administration’s handling of the current COVID-19 pandemic that has killed over 200,000 Americans in the last 9 months was the first topic brought up.
Pence immediately deflected on a question of the so-called “super-spreader” event where President Donald Trump likely was infected with COVID-19.
As expected, COVID-19 was a hot topic and took up a majority of the time, however the question of further stimulus for the American people was not brought up.
With another Presidential Debate coming up, and the Election not long after, the question of whether a Vice Presidential debate is necessary will always be there, but this year, where the first Presidential debate was so poorly received, it may prove to be an important voter point at the polls.
