Good evening from the university of utah in salt lake city welcome to the first and only vice president forbade of twenty twenty sponsored by the nonpartisan commission on presidential debates i’m susan page of usa today it is my honor to moderate this debate and important part of our democracy in kingsbury whole tonight we have a small and socially distant audience and we’ve 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 twelve feet apart
The audience is enthusiastic about their candidates but they’ve agreed to express that enthusiasm only twice at the end of the debate and now when i introduce the candidates please welcome california sen kamala harris and vice president mike pence her senator harrison vice president pence thank you for being here we’re meeting as president trump in the first lady continue to undergo treatment in washington after testing positive for covert nineteen we send our thoughts and prayers to them for their rapid and complete recovery and for the recovery of everyone afflicted by the corona virus
The do campaigns and the commission on presidential debates have agreed to the ground rules for tonight i’m here to enforce them on behalf of the millions of americans who are watching one note no one in either campaign or at the commission or anywhere else has been told in advance what topics all race or what questions i’ll ask this ninety minute debate will be divided into nine segments of about ten minutes each or begin a segment by posing a question to each of you sometimes the same question sometimes a different question on the same topic you will then have two minutes to answer without interruption by me or the other candidate then we’ll take six minutes or so to discuss the issue at that point although there will always be more to say will move on to the next topic
We want a debate that is lively but americans also deserve a discussion that is civil these are tumultuous times but we can and will have a respectful exchange about the big issues facing our nation let’s begin with the ongoing pandemic that has cost our country so much senator harris the corona virus is not under control over the past week johns hopkins reports that thirty nine states have had more covert cases over the past seven days than in the week before nine states have set new records even if a vaccine is released soon the next administration will face hard choices what would a biden the administration do in january and february that a trump administration wouldn’t do would you impose new lockdowns for businesses and schools and hotspot a federal mandate to wear masks you have two minutes to respond without interruption thank you susan
Well the american people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in history of our country and here are the facts two hundred and ten thousand dead people in our country it is the last several months over seven million people who have contracted the disease one in five businesses closed we’re looking at front line workers who have been treated like sacrificial workers we are looking it over thirty million people who in the last several months had to file for unemployment and here’s the thing on january twenty eighth the vice president and the president more informed about the nature of this pandemic they were informed that it’s lethal and consequence that it is airborne that it will affect young people
And that it would be contracted it because it is airborne and they knew what was happening and they didn’t tell you can you imagine if you know on january twenty eighth as opposed to march thirteenth what they knew what you might have done to prepare they knew and they covered it up the president said it was a hoax they minimize the seriousness of it the president said you’re on one side of his leisure if you’re wear a mask on the other side of his ledger if you don’t and in spite of all of that today they still don’t have a plan they still don’t have a plan will joe biden does and our plan is about what we need to do around a national strategy
For contact tracing protesting for administration of the vaccine and making sure that it will be free for all that is the plan that joe biden has and that i have knowing that we have to get a hold of what has been going on and we need to save our country and joe biden is the best leader to do that and frankly this administration as for fitted thank you say or write to reelection based on this thank you senator harris vice president pence more than two hundred and ten thousand americans have died of covert nineteen since february the us death toll as a percentage of our population is higher than that of almost every other wealthy nation on earth for instance or death rate is two and a half times that of canada next door
You head the administration’s corona virus task force why is the u s death toll as a percentage of our population higher than that of almost every other wealthy country and you have two minutes to respond without interruption susan’s eg you know what to think the commission in the university of utah for hosting this event those are two years privilege should be on the stage with you in our nation’s gone through every challenge challenging time this year but or what the american people you know it from the very first the president donald trump as put the health of america first before there were more than five cases in the united states all people who had returned from china president donald trump do with no other american president had ever done
That was be suspended all trouble from china the second largest economy in the world no shuttered jawbone biden opposed that decision he said it was either forward and hysterical but i can tell you having where the white house grown of task force of that decision alone by president trump bought us in valuable time to stand up the greatest national mobilization since world war two and i believe it saved hundreds of thousands of american lives because with that time we were able to reinvent testing more than one hundred and fifteen million tested the done to date we were able to see to the delivery of billions of supplies so er doctors and nurses had the resources sport they needed and we began really before the month of february resort to develop
A heartbreaking number of two thousand and five hundred americans a day we surge resources to new jersey and new york and new orleans and detroit we told the american people would need to be done in the american people made the sacrifices when the outbreak in the sun belt have in the summer again american step forward but the reality is the work of the president of the united states goes on they could see on the supreme court of the united states it has come upon us and the president introduced judging amy kona very thank you thank you very bad at that if i may say that rose garden of them then great deal of speculation about it my wife karen and i were there and honor to be there many the people who are out that events susan actually were testing for corona virus
And it was an outdoor event which all of our scientists regularly and routinely advise the difference here is president trump on i trust the american people to make choices and the best interest of their health joe biden and kamala harris consistently talk about mandates and not not just mandates with the current a virus but a government takeover of health cater think a green new deal all government control were about freedom and respecting the freedom of the american people let’s talk about respecting the american people you respect the american hit when you tell them the truth you respect the american people when you have the courage which we’ve elite are speaking of those things that you may not
Want people to hear but they need to hear so they can protect themselves but this administration stood on information that if you had as a parent if you had as a worker knowing you didn’t have enough money saved up and now you’re standing in a food why because of the ineptitude a administration that was unwilling to speak the truth to the american people so let’s talk about caring about the american people the american people had to sacrifice far too much because of the incompetence of this administration it is asking too much of the people who we don’t know what i did as after too much of the paper let it they would not be equipped with the information they need to help themselves to potatoes their pair goes on and derek i’m sorry that kamala harris senator harris i mean i’m sorry that’s fine i’m pamela now know sen s twenty
For life to get back to normal doctor anthony foxx the other experts say that most of the people who can be vaccinated need to be vaccinated that half of americans now say they wouldn’t take a vaccine if it was released now if the trump administration improves the vaccine before after the election should americans take it and would you take it if the public health professionals if dr thousand if the doctors tell us that we should take it i’ll be the first in line to take it absolutely but if donald trump tells us it that we’ve taken i’m not taken it vice president pence there have been a lot of repercussions from this pandemic in recent days the president diagnosis of covered nineteen has underscored the importance of the job that you hold and that you are seeking that’s our second topic tonight it’s the role of the vice president
One of you will make history on january twentieth we will be the vice president to the oldest president the united states has ever had donald trump will be seventy four years old on inauguration day joe biden will be seventy eight years old that already has raised concerns among some voters’ concerns that have been sharpened by press trump’s hospitalization in recent days vice president pence have you had a conversation or reached an agreement with president trump about safeguards are procedures when it comes to the issue of presidential disability and if not do you think you should you have two minutes without interruption will susan thank you although i would like to go back i’m assuming it
Move on well be isolated i would like to go back because the reality is that we’re going to have a vaccine sen in record time in unheard of time in less than a year we have five companies in phase three clinical trials and were right now producing tens of millions of doses so with the fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine if a vaccine emerges during the trump administration i think is is unconscionable and senator i just ask you stop playing politics with people’s lives the reality is that we will have a vaccine we believe before the end of this year and it will have the capacity to save countless american lives and in your continuous undermining of confidence in a vaccine is just it it’s just unacceptable and let me also say
