Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate from Salt Lake City, Utah, offered further evidence that former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, are the right choices in this election.
No matter the issue confronting Americans – the coronavirus pandemic, health care, a rushed Supreme Court nomination process, tax fairness, or the country’s need for a steady, seasoned leader – Kamala Harris provided not only further evidence why Biden has the leadership and experience we need in the White House, but chronicled the numerous failures of the Trump-Pence administration.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage, with more than 210,000 dead, millions battling the disease and millions of workers furloughed or laid off permanently, Harris characterized President Donald Trump’s haphazard and dangerous approach to the pandemic: “We are looking at front-line workers who are being treated like sacrificial workers.”
Harris’ statement comes as Trump walked away from aid negotiations on Tuesday to provide state and local aid and keep many of those workers on the job, a move that AFSCME President Lee Saunders called “the true measure of [Trump’s] callousness and cruelty.”
By contrast, Harris said, Biden has a plan “around a national strategy for contact tracing and a vaccine and making sure it will be free for all.”
Harris also drew a stark contract between a president who has in years past paid a mere $750 in federal taxes and owes hundreds of millions of dollars with a set of beliefs that she and Biden have long shared.
“Joe and I were raised the same way,” Harris said. “Hard work and the dignity of public service and fighting for the dignity of all people.”
Harris described a Biden administration as one that would put working families first rather than the wealthy and big corporations: “Joe believes you measure the strength and the health of the economy by looking at the strength and health of the American worker and the American family.”
Harris also said that on the first day of a Biden presidency, he would repeal Trump’s tax cut, which has helped the wealthy but has done little for working families.