Vice Presidential Debate Recap
Caroline Amenabar/NPR; Gage Skidmore/Flickr
We ran the numbers: There are 6225 news articles covering this topic. 46% (2847) are left leaning, 41% (2576) are center, and 13% (802) are right leaning.
After the Vice Presidential debate, a number of sources have been contemplating and critiquing candidates’ decision to dodge certain questions. Left leaning sources have emphasized Vice President Pence’s refusal to answer many of the debate questions, whereas right leaning sources have looked at Harris’ refusal to answer questions about the potential of packing the court.
A left leaning article published by The Washington Post looks at the ways in which Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris dodged certain questions in the debate. Harris refused to discuss the possibility of packing the court. The article goes on to label packing the court as “a hypothetical exercise that is all heat and no light for the nation.” That is to say, if Biden and Harris won the presidency, they would inherit a country suffering serious damage in the wake of the pandemic, and would thus have more urgent priorities than packing the court. The Republicans have repeatedly brought up this topic in an effort to paint the Democratic ticket as radical leftists looking to uproot the system as we know it. The article then goes on to state that “Pence has mastered the breathy earnestness of saying nothing.” He very rarely spoke to the topic at hand or answered the questions asked. Instead he rerouted the conversation to a game of finger pointing, accusation throwing and blaming the Democrats just about anything.
A centrist article published by The Hill outlines viewership trends in the debates. Fox News had the most viewers, followed by ABC and then CNN. Wednesday’s Vice Presidential Debate drew about 50.5 million viewers, which is about 26% more than the 2016 debate between Sen. Tim Kaine and VP Mike Pence. The most viewed Vice Presidential Debate is that between Joe Biden and then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, generating about 69 million viewers.
A right leaning article from Fox News looks at Kamala Harris’s refusal to answer questions about packing the court. Pence said that “the American people really deserve an answer.” He added that this is a classic threat from Democrats - “if you can’t win by the rules, you change the rules.” Harris did not respond to the question and Pence continued pressing her for an answer. Eventually, Harris responded by saying that “American people deserve to make the decision of who will serve for a lifetime.” With conflicting opinions on whether or not the Republicans can and should replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the Republicans have said that it is proper action because the White House and Senate are both controlled by the Republican party.