Vice presidential debates didn’t matter — until the president contracted a deadly virus and might be too sick to attend the next two of his own.
After last week’s screamfest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden drowned out nearly all talk of policy, it’s now on Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris to illuminate Wednesday night how the two tickets differ on substance. Pence has considerable ground to make up after Trump’s widely panned bulldozer act last week, and Harris has the delicate task of taking on the president as he recovers from the coronavirus.
Harris’ tone toward the laid-up president is expected to mirror Biden’s of late, according to aides and allies. The Democratic presidential contender and Harris have wished the president a speedy recovery. Their campaign pulled negative TV ads and implored staff to refrain from piling on to reporters and on social media, though as Trump emerged from the hospital late Monday, Biden suggested he would not let him off the hook for not wearing a mask and flouting social distancing protocols.
The grim circumstances don’t change Harris’ overarching objective: to methodically yolk Pence to the Trump administration’s months of failures to contain the virus, zeroing in on his role as chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
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