This past Wednesday, Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence made their way to Salt Lake City, Utah to participate in the first and only Vice Presidential Debate for the 2020 Election.
The 2020 VP debate was deemed to be the most historical of its kind, as viewers looked to the running-mates for answers on policy that they couldn’t receive during the chaos of the first presidential debate.
Physically separated by plexiglass walls, the debate was substantially more civil than the presidential debate before it. Yet, there were several peculiar moments which left viewers scratching their heads in an abundance of confusion. Several awkward moments between the two candidates, such as dodging questions and over exaggerating numbers, gave a reminder of how frustrating debates truly are when they are actually presidential. Unfortunately, the first presidential debate proved that most Americans would rather end a political debate feeling frustrated than emotionally traumatized.
While past sparring matches between VP candidates have seen less fanfare than that of their presidential counterparts, the Pence-Harris faceoff was disparate for its kind. On one side of the debate stage was the current vice president, first in line to take the seat of an ill president who is infected by a deadly virus that he spent the past eight months playing off; on the other side was the first Black and first Indian woman on a major ticket in a general election, running alongside, who could be, the oldest sitting president in history.
To make things even more unusual, around half way through the debate, a fly disturbingly descended on Pence’s “lustrous white hair,” and remained utterly motionless for two minutes and three seconds. The fly’s appearance came in the midst of the segment that covered racism. Pence, an old white evangelical man, attempted to repudiate the notion that America has a racism issue, making the repugnant claim that such a statement was “insulting to law enforcement.”
Within minutes of the fly’s descent on Pence’s polished snowy head, the Biden campaign released fly swatters for $10 each, all of which are sold out now. Former Vice President Joe Biden also tweeted an image of him holding a fly swatter with the caption, “Pitch in $5 to help this campaign fly.”
Former Vice President Biden tweeting a satirical image of him with a fly swatter, moments after a fly appears on the head of Vice President Mike Pence. Photo Courtesy of BBC News.
Pence’s record of opting out of answering any question that was presented to him for the entire 90 minutes of the debate was outstanding.
The eccentric debate consisted of the incumbent echoing the same fabricated sentiments that President Trump did in the last debate. Harris was determined to highlight Biden’s policies for what they were, while attempting to bolt away from Pence’s constant interruptions and disregard of anything she said.
At one point in the debate when Pence repeatedly interrupted Harris, she looked to Pence and said, “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking,” a misogynistic experience very familiar for women in fields that are male-dominated.
When asked to take responsibility for the Trump administration’s abysmal response to the pandemic, the Vice President, who also happens to be the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, responded, “from the very first day, President Donald Trump has put the health of America first.” His response was an objective fabrication, given the fact that the President knew how deadly this virus was early in January, and still chose to unequivocally downplay it.
While continuing to ignore the question at hand, Pence attempted to attack the Obama-Biden administration’s response to the H1N1 swine flu, falsey advocating that the fatality of the coronavirus is as deadly as the swine flu was (H1N1 killed 0.57% of the amount of people that COVID-19 has.)
Susan Page then moved the discussion to climate change, and the Vice President was miraculously able to shift the focus from its detrimental ramifications to the smallest fragmentation of the subject: fracking. Pence’s misleading suggestion that Biden would ban fracking, completely overlooked a possible discussion over the intensity of the climate crisis right now. With wildfires burning down the West and deadly hurricanes erupting in the South, Pence condensed the severity of an acute global threat and pivoted it to focus on a miniscule issue that only affects a limited number of voters in the swing state Pennsylvania.
Asked if he had ever spoken to Trump about presidential disability, Pence turned the topic to the COVID vaccine. When asked about the President’s tax returns, Pence justified the president’s actions, saying he was a “businessman.” Upon discussing the Affordable Care Act, Pence erroneously implied that Trump has a plan to cover people with pre-existing conditions. When asked about abortion rights, he answered that he was delighted that Judge Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to become a Supreme Court Justice and then went on a rant about ISIS. On the topic of white supremacy, Pence defended Trump, claiming that the President can’t be racist because his grandchildren are Jewish.
There seems to be a lucid trend here between the questions that were asked to the Vice President and his obtuse tactics for answering them, either dodging it or answering falsely.
Since when did constantly spewing lies become the new socially acceptable form for politicians to gain constituents and followers?
Lying in politics has always existed since its birth. Yet, following the 2016 presidential election, the norm for political lying changed, as the President consistently presented lies upon lies throughout his campaign and his presidency. A New York Times article claimed that Trump lied at least once a day for the first forty days of this presidency.
As this farce makes Pence and his new pet the laughing stock of the country, it is still quite disturbing how cogently Pence was able to normalize Trump and his erratic behavior. Pence somehow made Trump and his policies look sane, even though his arguments were as ludicrous, if not more, than what Trump has said.
The fly’s second debut (first was during the 2016 debate) was indubitably comical but it suspiciously corroborates the idea that it’s appearance was karma for Trump and Pence’s consistent mendaciousness.
As the Vice President continues to defend his boss by lying to the public about his record, he left the country feeling more obfusticated than before. Though the debate was comparatively standard, aside from a few complaints about bad moderating and poor answers, it was definitely not economical. Yet, the fly’s presence on Pence’s head as he was deceiving the country gave proof to a powerful implication: Pence was rotting on the debate stage.
