Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris slammed President Donald Trump and its administration over its record on coronavirus and other key topics.
Her stern accusations came during her debate with US Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday, held at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
"The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country," Harris stated.
Harris noted that Trump knew about the threat of the pandemic back in late January, and chose to mislead the country about the danger of the virus.
“They knew and they covered it up. The president said it was a hoax. They minimized the seriousness of it … Frankly, this administration has forfeited their right to re-election based on this.”
Pence strongly defended Trump’s handling of the crisis that has killed more than 210,000 Americans.
“Our nation has gone through a very challenging time this year,” Pence stated. “But I want the American people to know that from the very first day, President Donald Trump has put the health of America first.”
Pence also referred to Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s plan to combat the pandemic as an “intellectual theft” from the current White House administration.
During the 90-minute debate at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Harris was asked whether she would take an approved COVID-19 vaccine which would be distributed before the next election.
The Democratic candidate previously refused to say if she would mention that she might take the vaccine if senior US officials “Tell us that we should take it, I’ll be the first in line to take it, absolutely. But if Donald Trump tells us that we should take it, I’m not taking it."
“It is unreasonable to continue to undermine public confidence in the vaccine if produced during the Trump administration,” US Vice President replayed back to her. “Senator, I just ask you to stop pushing politics into people’s lives.”
The two vice-presidential candidates drew a clear line on the U.S.-China trade war with Pence conveying a position of strength and Harris condemning the damage done to American farmers and manufacturers.
“Joe Biden wants to repeal all of the tariffs that President Trump put into effect to fight for American jobs and American workers,” US Vice President indicated.
The Democratic candidate did not contend Pence’s accusation about repealing the tariffs; however, addressed that Trump’s tariffs, the Chinese retaliatory tariffs on U.S. farm commodities, resulted in farm bankruptcies and thousands of lost manufacturing jobs.
She proclaimed that Trump “lost” the trade war and her arguments stayed close to previous statements made by her running mate, former Vice President Joe Biden
The US Vice President repeatedly accused Biden of “economic surrender” to China describing him as weak on the issue.
“Lost the trade war with China?” he hazily wondered. “Joe Biden never fought it. Joe Biden’s been a cheerleader for communist China over the last several decades.”
Both the candidates dodged direct answers in policy-focused debate.
He wouldn’t say whether it was irresponsible for the White House to have held a “Rose Garden ceremony” that appears to have been a super spreader event that may have sickened the president and many others with the coronavirus.
On the other hand, Harris wouldn’t say whether the Biden administration would impose onerous new lockdowns or a federal mask mandate to battle the coronavirus.
Neither candidate would answer when asked if they’d had discussions about safeguards and procedures if Trump, 74, or Biden, 77, were to become incapacitated in the White House.
After the debate came to an end, Trump and Biden praised both the candidates for their work as Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence WON BIG! ”, while Biden tweeted, “@KamalaHarris, you made us all proud.”
Follow the latest news on Google News
