Nonpartisan commission on president ial debates. Im susan page of usa today. It is my honor to moderate this debate, an important part of our democracy. In Kingsbury Hall tonight, we have a small and socially distanced audience, we have taken extra precautions during this pandemic. Among other things, everyone in the audience is required to wear a face mask, and the candidates will be seated 12 feet apart. The audience is enthusiastic about their candidates, but they have agreed to express that enthusiasm only twice, at the the debate, and now, when i introduced the candidates. Please welcome california senator Kamala Harris and Vice President mike pence. [applause] susan senator harris and Vice President pence, thank you for being here. We are meeting as President Trump and the first lady continue to undergo treatment in washington after testing positive for covid19. We send our thoughts and prayers for them for the rapid and complete recovery, and for the recovery of everyone afflict
The people in that audience youre probably looking at very, very closely. Theyre all wearing masks. What youre not seeing is the people who are going to be up on the stage, the moderator and the two candidates. They will not be. Now, its required here that they all make sure that they keep those masks on in the audience or they will be kicked out. I think jerry baker is back with us gerry baker is back with us. I i a apologize for my confusion. Erasing the memories and all the other stuff that happened entertaining that might have been that these guys are going to keep it to a minimum. Do you think they can, they will . Well, i think we certainly wont see anything like last week, i think we can probably guarantee that. But Kamala Harris is sharp, aggressive, i dont think she can help herself. Shell want to prosecute the case as shes done in the past, shell want to prosecute aggressively, and Vice President pence is not going to take it lying down. I think itll be a sharp, lively debate
This is going to go. The people in that audience youre probably looking at very, very closely. Theyre all wearing masks. What youre not seeing is the people who are going to be up on the stage, the moderator and the two candidates. They will not be. Now, its required here that they all make sure that they keep those masks on in the audience or they will be kicked out. I think jerry baker is back with us gerry baker is back with us. I i a apologize for my confusion. Erasing the memories and all the other stuff that happened entertaining that might have been that these guys are going to keep it to a minimum. Do you think they can, they will . Well, i think we certainly wont see anything like last week, i think we can probably guarantee that. But Kamala Harris is sharp, aggressive, i dont think she can help herself. Shell want to prosecute the case as shes done in the past, shell want to prosecute aggressively, and Vice President pence is not going to take it lying down. I think itll be a
A seasoned washington veteran so let us cross now to salt lake city. But unfortunately it looks like they have not yet taken the stage but you can see there the set up that they have youve got 2 desks spaced apart plexiglas between the 2 next to each desk. Yeah which is something that was actually quite contentious coming into this debate was the question of what kind of coronavirus measures were going to be in place to protect both candidates well both Vice President mike pence and harris from coronavirus stacey what was the debate there over the last barriers. And his team did im sorry of course biden harris wanted the up but mike pence his team scoffed at the idea that there is no proof that this provides any kind of protection and his Main Communications person said that harris is free to build a fortress around herself if she wants to but but his camp with not interested in that and then they wound up caving which i mean why make it more of an issue but interesting because pay ten
Heres what we can expect tonight in these covid times. For the first time ever, plexiglass will separate mike pence and Kamala Harris on stage. The candidates will be separated by a bit more than 12 feet apart. Tonights moderator, susan page of usa today, is not prerelease topics. The Debate Commission says there will be nine segments about 10 minutes each. Lets bring in tom bevan, president and cofounder of real clear politics. Tom, good evening and welcome back to our coverage. A little more than a week later. Lets start with the Vice President. What is mike pences challenge tonight . Hes got a tall order. I think mike pence is going to have to be very, very sharp. Hes got to present a robust defense of the Trump Administrations record. He has to present a forwardlooking vision as to what the Trump Administrations will do if they were given another four years. He has to press Kamala Harris on the questions that the campaign has not answered. Does she and joe biden support packing the