It is always about who will be a heartbeat away from the presidency. But this time, that applies more than ever.
The incumbent, Mike Pence, and the California senator Kamala Harris are set to take part in a vice-presidential debate in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Wednesday with both under pressure to show their readiness to step up to the top job.
The presidential race has been upended again, this time by 74-year-old Donald Trump’s infection with the coronavirus, focusing minds on the potential for Pence to take over even before election day on 3 November. The Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, is even older at 77, raising the prospect that if elected, he might not serve two terms but rather pass the torch to Harris in 2024.
“The stakes of the debate just got much higher,” said Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “Typically, vice-presidential debates don’t really make much of a difference and aren’t very well viewed – the one in 2016 was only watched by 37m people, a much smaller audience than the three presidential debates.
“But now, given what happened with President Trump, it really increases the stakes of this debate because of the health of the candidates. You have a 74-year-old, a 77-year-old and so these two have to be ready to step in at a moment’s notice.”
Trump left hospital on Monday night, but the two remaining presidential debates between Trump and Biden later this month remain in serious doubt. “This may be the last debate of the cycle and another reason why it’s extra important,” Kall said.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
