VP nominees clash in Utah

“I am pro-life. I don’t apologize for it,” GOP Vice President Mike Pence said during Wednesday night's vice presidential debate, adding that President Donald Trump “stands for the sanctity of human life.” Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris said: “I will always fight for a woman’s right to make a decision about her own body.” The two nominees debated at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City in a more polite and formal encounter than the presidential debate last week. On the issue of the Supreme Court, Pence called for no attacks on Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett for her Catholic faith, while Harris, like running mate Joe Biden, refused to answer whether their administration would pack the Supreme Court with more justices.

What other issues did the nominees take on? Harris continued the attack on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying that if the president released a vaccine, “I’m not taking it.” Pence referred to the undermining of confidence in the vaccine as “unconscionable.” Pence said, on the economy, that Biden would raise taxes on the middle class, after Harris declared Biden would repeal the tax reform bill Congress passed in 2017. Harris called climate change “an existential threat to us as human beings” but claimed Biden would not ban fracking. Pence called that claim false and said that more innovation would protect the environment.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s analysis in the Stew on Barrett’s upcoming confirmation process.