Kathmandu. After the first US Presidential Debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump quickly dissolved into kindergarten sessions of name-calling and throwing personal jabs at each other, many were keen to observe how the candidates running for the Vice-Presidency would perform. Compared to the chaos of the presidential debates, the candidates had relatively more cordial exchanges and cleared some of the policy objectives that their individual parties promoted. The Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and the current VP and Republican candidate Mike Pence discussed on issues of Covid-19 management, climate change, the recent nomination for the Supreme Court justice, US-China bilateral relations and the economy.

The Vice Presidential debates have historically been eyed with less focus. This particular event garnered a lot of attention due to the ill-health of the current President and the concerns over the age of both Biden and Trump. Harris is a politician and former attorney who represents the state of California in the US Senate. Pence, the current Vice President who has stood as a pillar of immense support to Trump is a conservative who has had a long history in politics and has served as the Governor of the state of Indiana.

The debate held in Salt Lake City saw the candidates being separated by Plexiglas in order to contain any possibility of the spread of the pandemic, owing to the recent rise of infections in the White House.  Particularly tense moments presided in the debates when the candidates focused on Trump’s taxes and his administration’s Covid-19 management efforts. The California Senator posited, “Just so everyone is clear, when we say in debt, it means you owe money to somebody. It would be really good to know who the President of the United States, the commander-in-chief, owes money to.” Pence responded by saying that “The American people have a President who a businessman, a job creator. He’s paid tens of millions of dollar in taxes, payroll, property taxes.”

Harris, furthermore pointed out that the policies adopted by the current administration represented a “historic failure” deeming Trump unfit for a second-term. However, she failed to provide a clear insight into the policies she and Biden planned to adopt with regards to the matter. Pence hit back by stating that they were simply respecting the “freedom of the American people.”

He further claimed that the Democratic party was politicizing the issue, accusing Harris of her party’s constant undermining of the production of a coronavirus vaccine. He noted that, “The fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine, if a vaccine emerges during the Trump Administration, I think is unconscionable,” adding “Senator, I just ask you, stop playing politics with people’s lives.” To which Harris replied that she would support the vaccine only if it was recommended by medical experts and practitioners.

A significant portion of the debate was also spent on the issues of race, justice and the ongoing trade war between US and China. The discussions that started with the Breonna Taylor case had the candidates disagreeing on the state’s justice system and the way that racial crimes were being addressed. On the other hand, Harris pressed on the job losses created by the trade war with China.

Predictably quite a few ambiguous arguments were presented on the Wednesday debate. In an effort to fact check the points put forth by the candidates, ABC News highlighted the misleading statements that came from each of them. A few markers that the report presented were on Pence’s comparison of Covid-19 and the H1N1, China restrictions, PPE availability, the White House outbreak and the employment rates. Harris’s claims of Trump’s financial records has also been clarified in the report.