Five columnists from Newspaper present their analysis of the debate between Democratic Senator Kamala Harris and US Vice President Mike Pence during the presidential campaign.
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Table Of Contents
Pierre Martin
A face-to-face meeting that will quickly be forgotten
Kamala Harris and Mike Pence have neither lost nor gained ground.
The two carefully avoided answering a bunch of questions, but Pence was supremely irritating with his grimaces, interruptions, and consistently going over his speaking times.
He was repeating Donald Trump’s usual lies, including his phantom health plan and his imaginary environmental achievements.
Harris attacked Trump’s catastrophic pandemic record, but she could have done more. This debate will quickly be forgotten.
Loïc Tassé
Harris, hands down
Kamala Harris was smiling, informed, concrete, intelligent.
It rebounded well on several topics, such as Donald Trump’s finances or the way the president talks about American soldiers killed in action.
The only subject where it was weaker: China.
Mike Pence was dull, was banal, constantly ran over time, very often avoided answering questions, for example on climate change.
Harris was also able to set the record straight on several occasions.
Normand Lester
Mission accomplished for Harris
Kamala Harris has been convincing in her case over the incompetence and inconsistency of the Trump administration particularly regarding the coronavirus crisis. She also had to show that she was a woman who had the skills to become president. Mission accomplished !
Mike Pence politely tried to defend the indefensible: his handling of the coronavirus crisis and Trump’s erratic four years in the White House.
A generally calm debate, without scandal which will allow voters to decide which of the two is more apt to replace, in the short term, elderly presidents with declining health.
Luc Laliberté
The adult debate
If Kamala Harris had to prove that his reputation is not overrated, Mike Pence had to deal with a mixed record of managing the pandemic and a president who has been unleashed on social networks for two days.
Well prepared and in control, Harris and Pence delivered the goods, each carrying out their missions successfully.
The Democrat had to avoid hurting her candidate, Joe Biden, who holds an interesting lead, while Pence had to score points.
But if the truth and the facts are to be considered, the advantage must be given to the Democratic candidate.
Richard Latendresse
The bar was low
Finally a normal debate! Littered with exaggerations, falsehoods, twisted allegations, true and false emotions, but at least no one called the other a clown.
Never has an outgoing vice-president had to cross such a low bar in a political debate: to appear vaguely coherent and thoughtful.
Mike Pence rose to the challenge; better yet, by being courteous, he shook off the image of a misogynistic White House that sticks to his boss’s skin.
Kamala Harris was to represent the Americans who have already forgotten the debates of the Democratic primary. She was informed and combative, while remaining calm. It didn’t hurt Joe Biden’s campaign, that’s the bottom line.
Because Mike Pence continues to live in the alternate reality nurtured by President Trump, victory in Harris!
Civilized exchanges
“The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country. “–Kamala Harris
“China is to blame for the coronavirus, and Donald Trump is not happy. “– Mike Pence, pointing out the authorities’ slowness to sound the alarm
“Mr. Vice-President, I’m speaking. I speak. “–Kamala Harris, when Mike Pence tried to interrupt him
“I am pro-life and I will not apologize for this. “– Mike Pence
“When I look at the plan [pour la COVID-19] from Biden, it looks a bit like plagiarism; what Joe Biden knows. “– Mike Pence
“Joe Biden was a cheerleader for Communist China”– Mike Pence