Pence, Harris face off in VP debate with diverging views of America

Page pivoted the conversation to climate change, noting the U.S. has seen record-setting hurricanes in the South and record-setting wildfires in the West this year, setting the stakes and posing the first question to the vice president. 

"Do you believe, as the scientific community has concluded, that man-made climate change has made wildfires hotter and more deadly and hurricanes wetter and more damaging?" Page asked.

Pence didn't directly answer but warned Harris would sign the U.S. back into the Paris Climate Accord and falsely claimed Biden and Harris have committed to abolishing fossil fuel and banning fracking. 

"President Trump and I believe that the progress that we have made in a cleaner environment has been happening precisely because we have a strong free market economy," Pence said. 

Harris, once a proponent of the Green New Deal as both a co-sponsor of Sen. Bernie Sanders' bill and as a presidential candidate -- is now embracing Biden's climate plan and defended her running mate's record.

"First of all, I will repeat, and the American people know, that Joe Biden will not ban fracking. That is a fact. That is a fact," Harris began. "We have seen a pattern with this administration, which is, they don't believe in science."

"Joe sees what's happening on the Gulf states, which are being battered by storms. Joe has seen and talked with the farmers in Iowa whose entire crops have been destroyed because of floods. And so Joe believes, again, in science," Harris said, adding that a Biden-Harris administration would "re-enter the climate agreement with pride."

Page then asked if Pence agrees with Harris that climate change poses an existential threat to humans.

"As I said, Susan, the climate is changing. We'll follow the science," Pence said, before launching into an attack on Biden's tax plan.

Continuing on the theme of transparency, Page asked Harris, "Do voters have a right to know more detailed health information about presidential candidates especially when they're facing a challenge?"

Harris said "absolutely" and raised recent reporting on Trump's taxes. 

"That's why Joe Biden has been so incredibly transparent, and certainly by contrast, the president has not. Both in terms of health records, but also let's look at taxes. We now know because of great investigative journalism that Donald Trump paid $750 in taxes. When I first heard about it, I literally said, 'You mean $750,000?'" Harris said. "And it was like, 'No, $750.'" 

"We now know Donald Trump owes and is in debt for $400 million," she said, in reference to New York Times reporting. "It would be really good to know who the president of the United States, the commander in chief, owes money to because the American people have a right to know what is influencing the president's decisions and is he making those decisions on the best interest of the American people, of you, or self-interest?"

Pence defended the attack by painting Trump as a "businessman" and "job creator."

"He's paid tens of millions of dollars in taxes, payroll taxes, property taxes. He's created tens of thousands of American jobs. The president said those public reports are not accurate and the president's also released literally stacks of financial disclosures the American people can review just as the law allows," Pence said, though Trump has not released his tax returns, repeatedly saying they're under audit. 

When asked about whether Harris had spoken with Biden about a plan in case of presidential disability, she touted her career and the historic nature of her nomination, but she said their shared purpose is the reason she is on the ticket with Biden.

"I think Joe has asked me to serve with him because he knows that we share, we share a purpose which is about lifting up the American people," Harris said. "And after the four years that we have seen of Donald Trump, unifying our country around our common values and principles."

In response to the same question, Pence touted the "transparency" that the White House practiced while the president was hospitalized at Walter Reed Medical Center. 

"The American people have a right to know about the health and well-being of their president and we'll continue to do that," Pence said.

During the first open discussion session, Page asked Harris if she would take a COVID-19 vaccine if it was approved by the Trump administration.

"If the public health professionals -- if Dr. Fauci, if the doctors tell us that we should take it, I'll be the first in line to take it, absolutely," Harris said. "But if Donald Trump tells us I should take it -- that we should take it, I'm not taking it."

Page tried to move on to the next topic -- the role of the vice president -- but Pence used his uninterrupted two minutes to respond to Harris' comment on a potential vaccine and to criticize how the Obama administration handled the Swine Flu or H1N1 pandemic of 2009. 

"We have five companies in phase three clinical trials and we're right now producing tens of millions of doses," the vice president said.  "So, the fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine, if a vaccine emerges during the trump administration, I think is unconscionable."

"And senator, I just ask you, stop playing politics with peoples' lives. The reality is, that we will have a vaccine, we believe, before the end of this year," he added.