Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis has changed the VP debate Wednesday. Here’s how
Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris will be seated 12 feet apart at the debate on Wednesday after President Donald Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 last week.
The Commission on Presidential Debates agreed to space the candidates 12 feet apart instead of the original 7 feet, Politico reported. The commission rejected Joe Biden campaign’s request to have Pence and Harris stand and will have them seated, according to the publication.
The commission also approved the use of a Plexiglas barrier between the two candidates, sources told Politico. Harris’ campaign supported the move while Pence’s opposed it, according to the publication. A plastic barrier was used during the debate between Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and Democratic candidate Jaime Harrison on Saturday.
“If Sen. Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it,” Katie Miller, a Pence spokeswoman, said, according to Politico.
The debate could be higher stakes than usual because no vice president has debated while a president is known to be sick, NBC News reported.
“Vice presidential debates oftentimes get a lot of attention at the moment, and then a few days later they’re forgotten,” presidential historian Michael Beschloss said, according to NBC News. “But this year it may be different.”
Harris and Pence will debate for the first time at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Harris tested negative for COVID-19 on Friday and Pence tested negative for the third time on Sunday as he continues on the campaign trail and participates in White House events.
But there are still concerns about the health of the two candidates who will take the stage Wednesday. Putting 12 feet of space between Harris and Pence doesn’t mean they can’t get sick from aerosol spread, public health experts told The Washington Post.
“Why put at risk the vice president and also his challenger?” Vin Gupta, an assistant professor of health metrics science at the University of Washington told The Washington Post. “It just seems to be a silly and needless risk given what has happened in the last 48 hours with the president.”
“I don’t understand why we are still having these in person. We could put them in separate rooms. Put it on Zoom,” said Tara C. Smith, an epidemiologist and professor at Kent State University’s College of Public Health. “Especially for the current vice president. We don’t know what is happening with the president.”
Trump tested positive for the virus on Thursday and was moved to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on Friday. Trump’s blood oxygen levels dropped twice in recent days, according to The Associated Press, citing Trump’s medical team. Trump announced Monday afternoon on Twitter that he would return to the White House later that day, with his medical team saying at a news conference that Trump “may not be entirely out of the woods yet” but his medical condition supported his discharge from Walter Reed.
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, shot down the suggestion that Pence should skip the debate.
“I have no concerns at all,” Miller said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We’re in a campaign. We have a month to go. We see Joe Biden and Kamala Harris out there campaigning.”
Pence has referred to Harris as a “radical leftist” and called Biden a “Trojan horse for the radical left,” The Wall Street Journal reported. He’s expected to bring that up during Wednesday’s debate, while Harris plans to focus on the pandemic, health care and Pence’s handling of the coronavirus task force.
The second and third presidential debates between Biden and Trump are scheduled for Oct. 15 in Miami and Oct. 22 in Nashville.
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 1:07 PM with the headline "Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis has changed the VP debate Wednesday. Here’s how."