If you did not watch debate night for the VP’s this time you missed something on race relations. The debate was a better articulation of the Harris Bien position than Joe was able to present. The interaction was more professional than the first Presidential debate. There did seem to be a clear winner. I may be worth looking at the video if you are on the fence. Here are some highlights from the debate:
Race Relations
The candidates also had a heated exchange on race relations. Harris called out Trump for what she claimed was his reluctance to condemn white supremacists, referring to last week’s presidential debate between Trump and Biden. She also cited the deadly 2017 Charlottesville, Va., Unite the Right rally.
Harris said: “Last week, the president of the United States took a debate stage in front of 70 million Americans and refused to condemn white supremacists … It wasn’t like he wasn’t given a chance. He didn’t do it, and then he doubled down. Then he said, when pressed, ‘Stand back, stand by.’ This is part of a pattern with Donald Trump.”
Pence countered citing Trump’s comments regarding the Charlottesville violence. Pence said:
“This is one of the things that makes people dislike the media so much in this country, that you selectively edit so much… After President Trump made comments about people on either side of the debate over monuments, he condemned the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists… He has done so repeatedly. Your concern that he doesn’t condemn neo-Nazis, President Trump has Jewish grandchildren. His daughter and son-in-law are Jewish. This is a president who respects and cherishes all of the American people.”
Pence argues the media distort what Trump had said about there being “very fine people” on both sides in Charlottesville.
Prosecutor Harris
Pence then went on offense about Harris’ prosecution record as a district attorney in San Francisco. Pence said to Harris:
“When you were D.A. in San Francisco, African Americans were 19 times more likely to be prosecuted for minor drug offenses than whites and Hispanics… You increased the disproportionate incarceration. You did nothing on criminal justice reform in California. You didn’t lift a finger to pass the First Step Act on Capitol Hill.”
The First Step Act is a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill signed into law by Trump in December 2018.
Harris did not directly defend her record as district attorney of San Francisco. Instead she deflected to her record as California attorney general. ,” Harris said:
“Having served as the attorney general of California, the work I did is a model of what our nation needs to do and what we will be able to do… I was the first statewide officer to institute a requirement that my agents would wear body cameras and keep them on full time. We were the first to initiate that there would be training for law enforcement on implicit bias.”