US Cawapres Debate 2020. © REUTERS / Brian Snyder
The US vice presidential debate that brought together Vice President Mike Pence and the Democratic Party's vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris was heated when discussing the corona virus pandemic.
Harris called President Donald Trump "the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country".
Meanwhile Pence called Democrat Joe Biden's pandemic plan a "plagiarism" of the current White House.
In a 90-minute debate Wednesday night at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Harris was asked if he would like an injection of the approved Covid-19 vaccine distributed ahead of the election.
The 55-year-old California senator said he would not take the vaccine touted by Trump without medical professional approval.
Pence, a well-mannered former Indiana governor known for his unwavering loyalty to Trump, retorted: "The fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in vaccines if vaccines emerge during the Trump administration, I think is absurd.
"And, Senator, I just ask you, stop playing politics with people's lives," said Pence as quoted by BBC.com.
The plexiglass barrier separating the two candidates sitting 12 feet (3.6 m) apart is a vivid reminder of a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans.
More Orderly than the Presidential Candidate Debates
Compared to the debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, this one scheduled cawapres debate is relatively orderly. Even so, there were some moments when Pence and Harris argued heatedly.
On the issue of racial justice, Pence expressed shock at the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. But he added: "There was no excuse for rioting and looting after."
He pointed to one of his guests in the auditorium, Flora Westbrooks, a black woman whose hair salon was destroyed during the riots in Minneapolis.
"The assumption you hear consistently from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that America is systematically racist, as Joe Biden puts it, law enforcement has an implicit bias against minorities, is a huge insult," Pence said.
Harris - who made history by becoming the first black woman to stand on the vice president's debate platform - said, "Last week the president of the United States took the debate stage in front of 70 million Americans and refused to condemn white supremacy.
"And that doesn't mean he doesn't have a chance. He doesn't do it and then he multiplies it and then he says when pressed, 'Back off, get ready.' And this is part of the Donald Trump pattern," Harris said.
"Not true, not true," argued Pence, revealing a track record that when Harris was a prosecutor in San Francisco, African-Americans were more likely to be prosecuted for petty drug offenses than whites or Latinos.
A heated debate also occurred when discussing the US trade war with China.
"You lost the trade war. You lost," Harris said.
"Lost the trade war with China? Joe Biden never fought him. Joe Biden has been a cheerleader for communist China, for the last few decades," Pence said.
Harris also used this debate moment to bring up Trump's income tax scandal again. "When I first heard it, I literally said, 'You mean $ 750,000?' And it's like, No, $ 750, "
In several questions and answers, the two candidates did not provide satisfactory answers and even diverted answers from their opponent's questions.
Pence twice pressed Harris on whether Biden would increase the number of seats on the Supreme Court, which has had nine judges for a century and a half, but Harris instead spoke up about Trump's current prospective judge.
Pence also did not answer questions including about how the Trump administration would provide health insurance for Americans who are sick.