The Young Turks - Part 1: 2020 VP Debate. Kamala Harris vs Mike Pence

Episode Date: October 8, 2020

Part 1: Cenk Uygur, Benjamin Dixon, and John Iadarola discuss the 2020 Vice Presidential debate between Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence on The Young Turks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. All right, welcome to the Young Turks coverage of the vice presidential debate between Mike Pence. Yes, he's still around. Yes, he's still vice president. And Kamala Harris, Jake Hugar, John, I are all over with you guys. Lots to talk about today. We will talk about what was, what was, what? What would happen if it was Pence versus Biden instead of Trump versus Biden? That poll came out.

And, you know, I haven't seen much of Kamala Harris, John. I want to talk about that a little bit. And obviously we're going to involve you guys as we always do in our coverages. The debate starts live at 9 o'clock Eastern. And when it does, we will immediately go to the debate and we will do a little bit of play-by-play. At that point, we'll probably be joined by Ben Dixon. And you'll get to see us eating popcorn a little bit and reacting. if there's pauses, unlike the Trump Biden train wreck, we will make comments throughout, and at the end, we'll give you a thorough analysis of it, of course, as we always do. So, John, before we get into any of those topics, I just want to read two member comments, I think left over from the main show, but I love them so much when they popped up in my document.

One is from Progressive Veteran who said, I began watching TYT four years ago. I've been a member for three years now. you've helped me become a progressive Democrat and not just a Democrat. Thanks. So I love that and I love that you became a member and I love that we do this show together. So t.com slash join to become a member just like progressive veteran is. If you're watching on YouTube, it's super easy. You can just hit the join button below and that'll get it done. And then cognitive dissonance squirrel wrote, just bought my damage report t-shirt. Damn.

Oh, John, I didn't know that it finally dropped. It dropped. They did. They did. It's a really cool design. And so I made a joke about, you know, because I'd been complaining that there wasn't a shirt on the main show. I made a joke that now we only have one shirt because you got to keep those goalposts moving.

But anyway, I received a tweet right after that from shop TYT saying that if we can sell 100 of the new damage report shirt by Friday, they'll provide a second TDR shirt by. Monday. So the gauntlet has been thrown down. Let's see if we can do it. Gauntlet meet ground. Okay. Shop t.Y.t.com. Apparently it's all of a sudden it's on. In fact, I've got my shop t.Y t shirts in the other room. I'll grab it for you guys in the next commercial break. I don't get to wear it on air, but I saw it again. Mitch better have my money. I love it. Oh, that one I wear in some of the live five shoots that I do. So remember, remember the third of November is the shirt that John is wearing

to encourage you to vote. That's all on shop, t-y-t.com. And also, wait, I think I got the mask for it. Yeah, here you go. Nice. Shut up, man. That's Joe Biden's famous line from the first debate. So it's in mass form and t-shirt form. All right, anyways, we got to get going. So, So, oh, by the way, sorry, one last thing, guys, these coverage is made possible by you guys, tyt.com slash go, tyt.com slash go. And I, we probably can't check it on the thermometer. But I'll let you guys know what it is throughout the show without the graphic, because that's so important to us being able to do programming like this. And it's so important for you affecting change in this country. And you are. All right. So, John, I don't know if you saw the

poll, but it turns out Pence is doing better against Biden than Trump is by a couple of points. I haven't seen that. I haven't seen that. How much? I don't have it right in front of me now, but it's, I think it's, he's doing better than Trump by two to three points against Biden. Is that what you would have guessed? Well, I don't really believe it. So I'll tell you what I mean by that. Yeah, I guess if you made me guess in the polling who would do better, I might have said that Pence may by a point or two, right? It's impossible to know because I know the results now. So that's, doesn't go as a win in my column, that's for sure. But in reality, I think Pence would do worse than Trump.

And the reason for that is, because at least Trump has his base super MAGA excited, if you will, right? And so Pence would have the problem, similar polling problems to Donald Trump, and then no one would show up for him. And it would be an epic train wreck, landslide, etc. So that's my guess as to how it would go down. Yeah, I- Yeah, go ahead. Oh no, you can continue. Yeah, no, look, what I was going to say is that if it, like, if they replaced Trump at the head of the ticket and Trump doesn't die, and Pence versus Biden,

That's such a gigantic win-win. I think we have a better chance of winning the election. I think that creates a dissension in civil war within the Republican Party. But mainly because it wouldn't be Trump. So Pence is terrible, but he's traditional terrible. Pence ain't going to end democracy. That's not who he is. Yeah, yeah, it's looking more and more like we're going to face some sort of civil war.

Let it be within the Republican Party, if at all possible. rather than in the streets of America. My gut, I agree. Pence does, you know, I doubt that the base cares much about him. And it's actually pretty amazing when you think about it, that he has stood by Trump's side for four years now. And I don't think the base cares at all about him. Like, you know, he hasn't turned against Trump. He seems perfectly loyal, but it's not like Trump trots him out like he does his son or Kimberly Gilfoyle or something like that. I do. I do think though Pence would have the advantage of, I don't think the American people would

blame him as directly for how the pandemic has gone, despite the fact that he's like the czar in charge of it. Trump has so clearly dominated the conversation that I don't think they'd blame Pence as much. And I think some of the sort of like the never Trump Republicans, the Lincoln project, some of them might be okay with Mike Pence, honestly. I don't know if they'd switch, you know, if they'd turn on a dime or anything like that right now. But I think in the long run, they would be okay with him. It would be a much more typical election. But I will say, we talked about on the damage report this morning, I don't necessarily agree with the confidence that your prediction yesterday was delivered in, but I do agree. It is so lopsided that I feel like they

could put pretty much anyone up, and it's still going to be a fairly large lead for Biden at this point. Yeah, so I found the poll. So it is Yahoo News Yuga poll, and it has Pence at 46, 41 loss. So Biden's got 46 Pence 41. So that's five points. And that same poll has Biden at 48 and Trump at 40. So that's an eight point loss. So Pence says three points better than him. John, I could talk to the issue of what the some folks in the Lincoln project would do. Because I interviewed Rick Wilson this morning. And tomorrow, make sure you guys are checking this out at 5.30 p.m. Eastern, before the Young Turks starts at six, our interviews started at 5.30. And I took a half an hour to talk with Rick Wilson, one of the co-founders of the Lincoln

Project. And I was shocked, and I think that you guys might be shocked, to find out that I actually think he's not full of crap, that he's actually authentic. And so I know that Anna Kasparian will want to murder me over that statement. I'm perfectly aware. of that. And now there's a price on my head. I get it. And you'll know it was Anna if afterwards there was some sauce sprinkled on my body. But check out the interview for yourself and make up your own mind. He hates money in politics and thinks it has completely corrupted the entire system, but especially the Republican Party. And if you if you want to find a way to get into my heart, that's how you do. But more importantly, obviously, that's true. It's true. It's

He's correctly deduced what is wrong with the system and actually wants cares to fix it, which means that he's not a Republican. It's official. They're not Republicans anymore. So at least at the national level, anyway, it's a nice flight of fancy. The chance of Trump stepping down to let Pence run, unless there's some sort of grand deal where he gets immunity or somebody literally bribes him, that's not going to happen, okay? The only way that would happen now is a catastrophic health issue, which a doctor on CNN today said,

there's still a 10% chance he dies. And I agree with that. He looks totally good. Don't get me wrong. I mean, little problems on the day that he came back, et cetera. He's a monster for walking around massless when he's a coronavirus patient and still contagious. He knows nothing about coronavirus, which he again displayed today, I can go on and on, but eyeballing it, he looks fine. But the reason why I say that there's still some percent of chance, and I probably agree with the doctor, that it's around 10 percent. I said 20 percent a couple of days ago, but it's been a couple of days since then, so the numbers are going down for what might happen to him. And the reason is there's some wildcards like a blood clot that could happen at any time,

and coronavirus makes it much more likely that a blood clot happens. And it's just instantly over. And so we've lost loved ones to blood clots so we know how dangerous they are. Trump doesn't know how any, he doesn't know danger of anything. He's never suffered the consequences of any decision he's ever made in his life. And he's 74. So of course, you know, and now that he survived coronavirus, he thinks he's a demigod, right? Well, he might be immune, I hear.

I don't know, but maybe he is. He's such an idiot. It's unbelievable how it. You know, Jane, the best time to declare your possible immunity to a virus is while it's still circulating freely through your body. Yeah. Look, the next person who says that Trump is playing three-dimensional chess will get punched by me, but proverbially, metaphorically and politically, not physically, but hey, no three-dimensional chess. There isn't one-dimensional chess. And Rick Wilson and I talked about that as well. No, smart people who are paying attention realize Trump's dumb as a rock. Dumb as a rock, there's rocks in his head. Pick one. Anyway. And so, but look, I think either way, they're in a world of hurt right now on the

Republican side. That's super clear. I want to talk a little bit in a second about how this debate's going to go. But first, let me read the names of some folks who just joined. became members on YouTube, Brandon Madrid, Nomadic Hippie, NGM, Ophelia, Mendes Alvarado, the Mutash, Ed Proctor, and Juan Espaya. So they all hit the join button below. The video, if you're watching on YouTube, it's super easy way to do it. It's great, and we do the show together. Speaking of which, let me read some comments from Super Chat.

The Mutash, who just joined up and has an awesome name, wrote in, I tune in frequently as a progressive myself. I'm terrified by the state of the U.S. I'm Canadian. Thank you for aspiring to real change. Well, the Mutosh, let me tell you something. Okay. Brother, you and I are going to get it together. Okay. So John, Anna, me, everybody who's on the show and everyone who's a member of this show or has contributed through t.yt.com slash go, I'm more confident now. I did an interview earlier today. I'm more confident now than I have ever been. So I, but guys, don't get me wrong. It ain't going to happen in six months. Okay, it's a process and it's going to take four years if we're lucky, eight years if we're

not. Okay, so that's just the reality of it. But at the end of eight years, unless we lost the country to fascism like Tucker Carlson wins the next election and he ends democracy, other than that, we are, I would, I really believe. And I know that everybody else in the world will consider it outrageous. But I now think we're the favorites. And they're the underdogs. The establishment is the underdogs. But watch out for the fascists, because they're still in the ballgame. Okay. So, and one more comment for you, John, Goku just saying, a title that I love, right, says, just bought a TDR shirt and a press on and shut up, man mass, second TDR will happen just Sayon.

Get it? Goku, Sayon. Just saying, I like you, dude. I like the way you think. All right, so John, go back to this debate. So I presume we think Kamala Harris is going to win, not because we're biased. And I don't have a lot of love for Kamala Harris. I have obviously zero percent of love for Mike Benz, but I think she's probably better at this.

And I think that at the end of the day, she'll win by seven points, okay, how's that for a fun prediction? Like, yeah, it's a nice win, okay, but it's not going to make much of a difference. What do you think? Yeah, well, I think what's interesting about that is that depending on which of the poll, like the sort of the instant reaction polls you look at from the first debate, Biden might have won from between 7 and 11 points or something. But a win in that debate is probably going to look and feel very different than a win in this debate. I don't think Mike Pence is going to be going crazy, interrupting all of that. I don't have a lot of experience with Mike Pence debates.

I don't have a strong memory of 2016 debates with him. He's always come across as a pretty boring guy, not a complete dummy or anything like that, but he's not a great political communicator. He's not super witty or clever, charismatic, or anything like that. I think that while Harris had a couple of good moments in the primary debates, I feel like she didn't perform as well as I would have guessed she would have going in. When I think of her in committee hearings and being very strong and in charge of the situation, very self-assured, I didn't necessarily always get that impression from the debates. But she wasn't bad. She didn't make a fool out of herself or or anything like that.

So I would expect, and I think most people are expecting that she's going to do quite well. I think the more important thing to note is that I don't think she really even has to. I don't think that it matters too much. VP debates really don't anyway. And as we've been talking about with Biden having the big lead that he's having, I don't think that the thing that's going to really shake things up is going to be the VP debate in either direction, regardless of who outperforms expectations. Yeah, I think you're almost indisputably right about everything you just said.

So flip that out, Mark. But the only thing that I'll discreet is slightly with is, is that the one debate that Kalma Harris clearly won. And at the time where there was 10 or 12 people on the debate stage, which is, you know, a hell of a thing that's a pretty good accomplishment, was the one where she was the one where she handed Joe Biden, her his ass. And so if she comes out like this, like that, now against a person she doesn't have to tap the brakes on, well, maybe we're wrong. Maybe she annihilates Pence, right? I don't think there's much of a chance of Pence annihilating Harris. And I don't

say that because of the Republican or Democrat. There's plenty of Republicans who beat plenty of Democrats in a debate. But I don't think it's Pence over Harris, almost under any circumstances. unless she has a brain fart and totally blows it. But I'd be very surprised by that. All right, we gotta take a little bit of a break and then we're gonna come back and give you a little bit more analysis before we start the official debate. But before we do that, I love these comments, so I'm gonna read them real quick. Jess wrote in our member section, in honor of this evening,

I am my very stable genius, Tion, and just bought another face mask this time for my son at shopty.com. I love it. And Charlie writes in, by the way, t.wit.com slash join to get your comments read more often. That's on our website. Charlie wrote, I hope the moderator asked Pence the tough questions, like do boots from different retailers taste different or is tasting irrelevant in the act of licking the boots satisfaction enough? I love doing this show with you guys. I love it. Okay. For the members who just signed up on YouTube, I'm going to read your names because I love doing it. Paul and Maria Sott. Sadatman, Brian Bauer, Joey Marin, Deborah Neighbors, Trent Baca, Mona 891, Gladys 20, Matthew Nelson, Eric Carbio, upgraded, Erica, I should say, Eric, I remember when you join. You joined in the middle of a line video. I called out your name. Mike Wilson. I don't know if it's related to Rick Wilson. We'll find out. Mr. Larson, Laura McKinley, Marquita Brown, Bill Freree, EH. Love you all. Hit the join button below. We'll read more names when we come back to. We'll be right back. Do democracy, vote. You got it. Use it.

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Public education was supposed to be the way to equalize everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic status. But if you come from a family that's poor, how are you going to afford grade school for your kids? This fight is about fairness and morality. It's about the American values. You think that black people all across the country, in every city, we're all lying when they said the police abused it.

police kill us when they should. No, of course they weren't lying. Yes, it does happen. Yes, they do get targeted for. Why are we going to put immigrants in prison for five years, which American taxpayers have to pay for if we're so concerned with immigrants using up our so-called resources? We're going to do both. We're going to fight Trump and we're going to fight the establishment. It's not that hard. Yes, you can do both at the same time. Go tell them. Trayker is a right-wing media outlet that gets $20 to $25 million a year from billionaire backers. TYT doesn't have billionaires cutting us checks, but the good news is that we don't need them. Okay, okay, okay.

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Yes, so I'll show it to you. If you can read this, you're not practicing social distancing. Yes. Now, you were practicing social distancing. This is over video. But overall, you get it. Shoptyd.com. Back on a Young Turks, vice presidential debate coverage, Jake, you or John Airolo with you guys. Anna Kasparian during the break already threatened to murder me. So we're in good shape and ready to roll over meet complimenting of Rick Wilson.

So watch that interview for yourself smart 5.30 p.m. Eastern right here. T.y.t.com slash live and then you'll get to judge whether I deserved to be murdered or not. Learn to burn rights in the member section. Pence might fly off the handle and call Harris Ma'am, could you imagine? So that is possible, I suppose. Sassi Otter says, John eating popcorn is the only reason I'm here. Oh, it's coming.

It's coming. Actually, you know, if we could do inside baseball, I was like horsing like down or wolfing down this biryani and then gave myself severe hiccups, which I forced my body to reabsorb before we went live again. I won't abide it, these hiccups. Breon, whatever that dish you just named, is it an Italian dish? No, it's Indian. It's like a ricey, spicy, meat, and veggie dish.

Very good. All right, God bless. Because I was surprised that I wouldn't know an Italian dish. Anyways, all right, I gotta keep going. So the more I think about it and I thought about it during the break, the more I think Kamala Harris is likely to kick Pence's ass. Because the minute I say take the brakes out of the car, I realize Kamala Harris tapping those breaks during the presidential debates because of exactly what happened.

She almost didn't get picked as VP because of how hard she was on Biden in one of the debates. And I'm sure that she got that feedback back and modulated in the rest of the debates. Here she doesn't have to worry about the brakes at all. She can just full blown go after Pence. So now I've built up my own expectations for her and I hope she can deliver. I want to read more comments here. C.S. Smith, the ruler says 4D chess, Trump is playing Connect 4. So I love that.

And thank you. These amounts on Super Chat are amazing. So thank you on to see Smith. The ruler there, David Rodriguez, also amazing number, says, Save the Nation support from Tampa. Thank you, David. You're the best. And Obie Mom Kenobi.

Of course! She's on Super Chat too. and says, love you all, TYT, thank you for your voices and for TDR merch. Hashtaggagon Squad. Is that your thing now, Dragon Squad? Is that what it is, John? It's everybody's thing, I guess.

You know, I have to give that one to the community. So I want to read more YouTube names in a second. As soon as the debate comes on, we're going to share it with you guys. So don't worry, you're not going to miss the second of it. But I'm going to Twitch first. Speaking of which, Obie Mom Kenobi Knobe gifted another 15 subs.

She's not gifted approximately 1 to 2 trillion subs to our channel, our Twitch channel. So I think it's the real numbers around 850. I'm not kidding. So she's a goddess in the TYRT community. Twitch.tv. t.y-y-t if you want to watch us there. Loeb Reaper, the Nettowist, Spider-1, Lord Calsaford, Thai Fighter 158, crash override 330 and Crown Judah all just signed up to be members on Twitch. And then these people are wonderful, generous people who just gifted subs. Rouse 52, Verity, N.S. Osbourne, Game Set, John, A. Tropey and Iron Man 42. And then let alone the Iron Man also donated a thousand bits and all the other folks who gave bits, including Deep Space

Monk donated 1400 bits. You guys are amazing. I love our Twitch community. If I could, and I think you guys could probably tell this, I would be on air 24 hours a day, just rotating between YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, live linear, all of our channels, Roku, about Pluto. And I can't, but I would love to. Anyways, and again on YouTube, there's too many names at this point. I'll get back to him in a second. I'll just read one upgrade. Bernard Gums upgraded. You could do that too. Hit the join button below if you're watching on YouTube. So love that. Okay, it's 6 o'clock now. So the debate is supposed to start any second now, Kamala Harris versus Mike Pence. To recap what John and I said earlier, number one, likely this won't matter.

Vice presidential debates almost never matter. Once that involve Mike Pence matter even less, especially when the bottom of the ticket the VP is Mike Pence and he's the least charismatic person on earth. And the top of the ticket is a powder keg lunatic like Donald Trump. Who the hell is going to pay attention to what the hell Mike Pence is doing? Yeah. Do we have a minute for me to say one way that it could matter, I think? So nobody has ever run for president and provided so much ammunition against them of horrendous

things they've said and done in ways that they failed the American public as Donald Trump has, which means that the first debate was an opportunity like never before seen for the challenger to use that against them. But Biden partially because he doesn't totally have that energy and that fire, but more so even because Trump wouldn't let him get half a word out without interrupting him, we didn't really see much of that. There were one or two good lines, but most of the coverage was driven by Trump's new crazy things that he said. Kamala Harris is going to come at Pence with that material. She's going to

tie him to coronavirus and all of that. The fact that Trump just said last night that he's done with the negotiations, Biden couldn't really make that stuff stick, but I assume that Kamala is going to come with the preparation to really try to make that case. And maybe since the coverage won't be as dominated by Mike Pence saying insane things, some of that might actually be a headline for a day or two. Yeah. And guys, again, I assure you that as soon as the debate starts, we'll go to it. So you're not missing anything.

And in terms of that, John, you know, the problem is that Democrats in my lifetime have almost never risen to the occasion in debates. There's always a thousand things they can say against Republicans and almost never do. The one that sticks out for me out of everyone of the debates of my lifetime, but it was was Beto against Ted Cruz. I mean, Ted Cruz deserves an annihilation and was ripe for one. And Beto, I mean, he played badminton at best when he could have brought a howitzer instead. And they just, they don't, they don't have any fight. So I know Kamala's got a little bit of fight because she fought Biden and did a spectacular job without one debate. And we came out,

and I was really early on in the primary process. And obviously Kamala Harris was not our favorite candidate, but I came out immediately and said, oh, she won that debate, no question about it. So she's got it in her. Let's see if she brings it out, or if Democratic consultants and Biden people are like, no, remember, we hide in a cave, we don't make any news, and we just, you know, coast. So we'll see. Now you got me pumped up, I got me pumped up, that Kamala could break him, and then say, I was wondering what would break first. You spent all your body, but likely she won't. No, that's not true. I don't know. It's a total mystery. That's why all of a sudden I'm excited about this debate. Is she going to kick his

ass or let him off the hook? Look, she could go after stuff that Pence believes too, but she won't. She'll go after stuff that Trump believes because he's the top of the ticket and she wants to pin that on Pence. I got more names. I got more commentary. You all know that. Let's go to the debate. I'm Susan Page of USA Today. It is my honor to moderate this debate, an important part of our democracy. In Kingsbury Hall tonight, we have a small and socially distant audience, and we've taken extra precautions during this pandemic. Among other things, everyone in the audience is required to wear a face mask, and the candidates will be seated 12 feet apart. The audience is enthusiastic about their candidates, but they've agreed to express that

enthusiasm only twice at the end of the debate, and now when I introduce the candidates. Please welcome California Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence. And the person most excited about the plexiglass separating Biden and I'm sorry, Pence and Kamala Harris is mother. It's Karen Pence, who Mike Pence is not allowed to be in a room with another female if mother is not present. That's his wife, believe it or not. And so mother's got to be thrilled about this. Let's watch. We're meeting as President Trump and the First Lady continue to undergo treatment in Washington

after testing positive for COVID-19. We send our thoughts and prayers to them for their rapid and complete recovery and for the recovery of everyone afflicted by the coronavirus. The two campaigns and the Commission on Presidential Debates have agreed to the ground rules for tonight. I'm here to enforce them on behalf of the millions of Americans who are watching. One note, no one in either campaign or at the commission or anywhere else has been told in advance what topics I'll raise or what questions I'll ask. This 90-minute debate will be divided into nine segments of about 10 minutes each. I'll begin a segment by posing a question to each of you, sometimes the same question, sometimes a different question on the same topic.

You will then have two minutes to answer without interruption by me or the other candidate. Then we'll take six minutes or so to discuss the issue. Pence to come on Harris don't interrupt. At that point, there will not always be more to say. What's that, John? Trump might come out and interrupt this one. Oh, I know, right? That's a more likely outcome than Pence being like, hold on, I'm going to tell you what you're doing, okay.

Pence is not going to do that. So she's going to have an easy time. Let's watch. can and will have a respectful exchange about the big issues facing our nation. Let's begin with the ongoing pandemic that has cost our country so much. Senator Harris, the coronavirus is not under control. Over the past week, Johns Hopkins reports that 39 states have had more COVID cases over the past seven days than in the week before.

Nine states have set new records. Even if a vaccine is released soon, the next administration will face hard choices. What would a Biden administration do in January and February that a Trump administration wouldn't do? Would you impose new lockdowns for businesses and schools and hotspots, a federal mandate to wear masks? You have two minutes to respond without interruption. Thank you, Susan. Well, the American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any president. administration in the history of our country.

And here are the facts. 210,000 dead people in our country in just the last several months. Over 7 million people who have contracted this disease. One in five businesses, closed. We're looking at frontline workers who have been treated like sacrificial workers. We are looking at over 30 million people

who in the last several months had to file for unemployment. And here's the thing. On January 28th, the vice president and the president were informed about the nature of this pandemic. They were informed that it's lethal in consequence, that it is airborne, that it will affect young people, and that it would be contracted because it is airborne. and they knew what was happening and they didn't tell you. Can you imagine if you knew on January 28th as opposed to March 13th, what they knew, what you might have done to prepare? They knew and they covered it up.

The president said it was a hoax. They minimized the seriousness of it. The president said, you're on one side of his ledger. If you wear a mask, you're on the other side of his ledger if you don't. And in spite of all of that today, they still don't have a plan. They still don't have a plan. Well, Joe Biden does. And our plan is about what we need to do around a national strategy for contact tracing, for testing, for administration of the vaccine, and making sure that it will be free for all.

That is the plan that Joe Biden has and that I have, knowing that we have to get a hold of what has been going on. and we need to save our country. And Joe Biden is the best leader to do that. And frankly, this administration has forfeited their right to re-election based on this. Thank you, Senator Harris. Vice President Pence, more than 210,000 Americans have died of COVID-19 since February. The U.S. death toll as a percentage of our population is higher than that of almost every other wealthy nation on earth. For instance, our death rate is two and a half times that of Canada next door.

You head the administration's coronavirus task force. Why is the U.S. death toll as a percentage of our population higher than that of almost every other wealthy country? And you have two minutes to respond without interruption. Susan, thank you. And I want to thank the Commission and the University of Utah for hosting this event. And Senator Harris, it's a privilege to be on the stage with you. And our nation has gone through a very challenging time this year. But I want the American people to know that from the very first day, President Donald Trump has put the health of America first.

Before there were more than five cases in the United States, all people who had returned from China. President Donald Trump did what no other American president had ever done. And that was he suspended all travel from China, the second largest economy in the world. Now, Senator Joe Biden opposed that decision. He said it was xenophobic and hysterical. But I can tell you, having led the White House Coronavirus Task Force, that that decision alone by President Trump bought us invaluable time to stand up the greatest national mobilization since World War II.

And I believe it's saved hundreds of thousands of American lives. Because with that time, we were able to reinvent testing. More than 115 million tests had been done. to date. We were able to see to the delivery of billions of supplies, so our doctors and nurses had the resources of support they needed. And we began really before the month of February was art to develop a vaccine and to develop medicines and therapeutics. It had been saving lives all along the way. And under President Trump's leadership, Operation Warp Speed, we believe, will have literally tens of millions of doses of a vaccine before the end of this year.

The reality is, when you look at the Biden plan, it reads an awful lot. Like, what President Trump and I and our task force have been doing every step of the way. And quite frankly, when I look at their plan that talks about advancing testing, creating new PPE, developing a vaccine, it looks a little bit like plagiarism, which is something Joe Biden knows a little bit about. And I think the American people know that this is a president who has put the health of America first in the American people. I believe with my heart can be proud of the sacrifices they have made. It's saved countless American lives. Senator Harris, would you like to respond?

Absolutely. Whatever the vice president is claiming the administration has done, clearly it hasn't worked. When you're looking at over 210,000 dead bodies in our country, American lives that have been lost, families that are grieving that loss. And, you know, the vice president is the head of the task force and knew on January 28th how serious this was. But thanks to Bob Woodward, we learned that they knew about it.

And then when that was exposed, the vice president said, when I asked, well, why didn't you all tell anybody? He said, because the president wanted people to remain calm. Well, let's get the problem. But Susan, this is important. And I want to add, Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I have to weigh in. You can get 15 more seconds, and then we'll give the vice president a chance to respond. So I want to ask the American people, how calm were you when you were panicked about?

about where you're going to get your next roll of toilet paper. How calm were you when your kids were sent home from school and you didn't know when they could go back? How calm were you when your children couldn't see your parents because you were afraid they could kill them? Let's give Vice President Pence a chance to respond. Vice President, you have one minute to respond. You know, there's not a day gone by that I haven't thought of every American family. This lost a loved one. And I want all of you to know that you'll always be in our hearts and in our prayers.

But when you say what the American people have done over these last eight months hasn't worked, that's a great disservice for the sacrifices the American people. The reality, if I may finish then, the reality is Dr. Fauci said everything that he told the president in the Oval Office, the president told the American people. Now, President Trump, I will tell you, has boundless confidence in the American people. And he always spoke with confidence that we'd get through this together. But when you say it hasn't worked, when Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx and our medical experts came to us in the second week of March, they said if the president didn't take the unprecedented step of shutting down roughly half of the American economy, that we could lose 2.2 million Americans. But that's the reality. Thank you. They also said to us, if we did everything right, Susan, we could still lose more than 200,000 Americans.

Vice President Pence. Now one life lost is too many, Susan. But the American people, I believe, deserve credit for the sacrifices that they have made, putting the health of their family and their neighbors first. Our doctors, our nurses, our first responders. Thank you, Vice President Pence. And I'm going to speak up on behalf of what the American people have done. Vice President Pence, you were in the front row in a Rose Garden event 11 days ago at what seems to have been a super spreader event for senior administration and congressional officials. No social distancing. Few masks. And now a close. cluster of coronavirus cases among those who were there. How can you expect Americans to follow the administration's safety guidelines to protect themselves from COVID when you at the White House have not been doing so? Well, the American people have demonstrated over the last eight months that when given the facts, they're willing to put the health of their families and their neighbors and people they don't even know first. President Trump and I have great confidence in the American people and their ability to take that information and put it into

practice. In the height of the epidemic, when we were losing a heartbreaking number of 2,500 Americans a day, we surge resources to New Jersey and New York and New Orleans and Detroit. We told the American people what needed to be done, and the American people made the sacrifices. When the outbreak in the sunbelt happened this summer, again, Americans stepped forward. But the reality is the work of the President of the United States goes on. A vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States has come upon us. And the president introduced Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice President. If I may say, that Rose Garden event, it's done a great deal of speculation about it. My wife Karen and I were there and honored to be there. Many of the people who were at that event, Susan, actually were tested for coronavirus. And it was an outdoor event, which all of our scientists regularly and routinely. advised. The difference here is President Trump and I trust the American people to make choices in the best interest of their health. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris consistently talk about mandates and not just mandates with the coronavirus, but a government takeover of health care,

the Green New Deal, all government control. We're about freedom and respecting the freedom of the American people. Let's talk about respecting the American people. You respect the American people when you tell them the truth. You respect the American people when you have the courage to be a leader speaking of those things that you may not want people to hear, but they need to hear so they can protect themselves.

But this administration stood on information that if you had as a parent, if you had as a worker knowing you didn't have enough money saved up and now you're standing in a food line because of the ineptitude of an administration that

was unwilling to speak the truth the American people. So let's talk about caring about the American people. The American people have had to sacrifice far too much because of the incompetence of this administration. It is asking too much of the people. It is asking too much of the people that they would not be equipped with the information they need to help themselves to protect their parents and their children. I'm sorry. Kamala Harris, Senator Harris, I mean, I'm sorry. That's fine, I'm Kamala. No, no, you're Senator Harris to me. For life to get back to normal, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other experts say that most of the people who can be vaccinated need to be vaccinated.

But half of Americans now say they wouldn't take a vaccine if it was released now. If the Trump administration approves a vaccine before or after the election, should Americans take it and would you take it? If the public health professionals, if Dr. Fauci, if the doctors tell us that we should take it, I'll be the first in line to take it. Absolutely. But if Donald Trump tells us that we should take it, I'm not taking it. Vice President Pence, there have been a lot of repercussions from this pandemic. In recent days, the president's diagnosis of COVID-19 has underscored the importance of the job that you hold and that you are seeking. That's our second topic tonight. It's the role of the vice president. One of you will make history on January 20th.

It will be the vice president to the oldest president the United States has ever had. Donald Trump will be 74 years old on inauguration day. Joe Biden will be 78 years old. That already has raised concerns among some voters, concerns that have been sharpened by President Trump's hospitalization in recent days. Vice President Pence, have you had a conversation or reached an agreement with President Trump about safeguards or procedures when it comes to the issue of presidential disability? And if not, do you think you should?

You have two minutes without interruption. Well, Susan, thank you. Although I would like to go back. I think we need to move on to the issue of- Vice-Picency. Because the reality is that we're going to have a vaccine, Senator, in record time, in unheard of time, in less than a year.

We have five companies in phase three clinical trials. And we're right now producing tens of millions of doses. So the fact that you continue to undermine, mind public confidence in a vaccine. If the vaccine emerges during the Trump administration, I think is unconscionable. And Senator, I just ask you, stop playing politics with people's lives. Oh, God. He will have a vaccine. We believe before the end of this year. And it will have the capacity to save countless American lives. And your continuous undermining. Come on. You work for a lying moron. Nobody's going to trust it. It's just, it's just. No one in their

It's unacceptable. And let me also say, you know, the reality is when you talk about failure in this administration, we actually do know what failure looks like in a pandemic. It was 2009. The swine flu arrived in the United States. Thankfully, it ended up not being as lethal as the coronavirus. But before the end of the year, when Joe Biden was vice president of the United States, not seven and a half million people conned. contracted the swine flu. Sixty million Americans contracted the swine flu. If the swine flu had been as lethal as the coronavirus, in 2009, when Joe Biden was vice president, we would have lost two million American lives. His own chief of staff, Ron Clayne, would say last year that it was pure luck that they

did, quote, everything possible wrong. And we learned from that. They left the strategic national stockpile empty. They left an empty and hollow plan, but we still learn from it. And I think the American people, I'm going to see again, can be proud of what we have done. And Senator, please stop undermining confidence in a vaccine. Senator Harris, let me ask you the same question that I asked, Vice President Pence, which is, have you had a conversation or reached an agreement with Vice President Biden

about safeguards or procedures when it comes to the issue of presidential disability? And if not, and if you win the election next month, do you think you should? Do you have two minutes uninterrupted? So let me tell you, first of all, the day I got the call from Joe Biden, it was actually a Zoom call. Asking me to serve with him on this ticket was probably one of the most memorable days of my life. I, you know, I thought about my mother who came to the United States at the age of 19, gave birth to me at the age of 20. at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California. And I thought that I'd be sitting here right now.

I know it would make her proud, and she must be looking down on this. You know, Joe and I were raised in a very similar way. We were raised with values that are about hard work, about the value and the dignity of public service, and about the importance of fighting for the dignity of all people. And I think Joe asked me to serve with him because, you know, I have a career that included being elected the first woman, district attorney of San Francisco, where I created models of innovation for law enforcement in terms of reform of the criminal justice system. I was elected the first woman of color and black woman to be elected attorney general of the state of California, where I ran the second largest department of justice in the United States, second only to the United States Department of Justice. And there I took on everything from transnational criminal organizations to the big banks that were taking advantage of homeowners to for-profit colleges that were taking advantage of veterans.

And then, of course, now I serve in the United States Senate as only the second back in elected to the United States Senate. I serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee where I've been in regular receipt of classified information about threats to our nation and hot spots over the world. I've traveled the world. I've met with our soldiers in our, in war zones. and I think Joe has asked me to serve with him because he knows that we share we share a purpose which is about lifting up the American people and after the four years that we have seen of Donald Trump

unifying our country around our common values and principles. Thank you, Senator Harris. You know, neither President Trump nor Vice President Biden has released a sort of detailed health information that had become the modern norm until the 2016 election. And in recent days, President Trump's doctors have given and misleading answers or refuse to answer basic questions about his health. And my question to each of you, in turn, is, is this information voters deserve to know?

Vice President Pence, would you like to go first? Well, Susan, thank you. And let me say, on behalf of the president and the First Lady, how move we've all been, by the outpouring of prayers and concern. for the president. And I do believe it's emblematic of prayers and the concern that of us is for every American impact. Someone at the White House has fallen greatly ill. We'll tell you more about it later.

But the President received at Walter Reed Hospital, the White House doctors was exceptional. And the transparency that they practiced all along the way will continue. The American people have a right to know about the health and well-being of their president. And we'll continue to do that. But I'm just extremely grateful. and was more than a little moved by the broad and bipartisan support. And Senator, I want to thank you and Joe Biden for your expressions, genuine concern. And I also want to congratulate you.

Standard political BS, move on. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden were not to start about trauma. And you didn't care about their being concerned. I never expected to be on this stage four years ago, so I know the feeling. But the reality is we've got an election. before the American people in the midst of this challenging year. And the states have never been higher. Thank you.

I want to give Senator Harris a chance to respond to the same question I ask, which is do voters have a right to know more detailed health information about presidential candidates and especially about presidents, especially when they're facing some kind of challenge? Absolutely. And that's why Joe Biden has been so incredibly transplanted. And certainly by contrast, the president has not, both in terms of health. records, but also let's look at taxes. We now know because of great investigative journalism that Donald Trump paid $750 in taxes. When I first heard about it, I literally said you mean

$750,000 and it was like, no, $750. We now know Donald Trump owes and is in debt for $400 million. And just so everyone is clear, when we say in debt, it means you owe. money to somebody. And it'd be really good to know who the president of the United States, the commander in chief, owes money to because the American people have a right to know what is influencing the president's decisions. And is he making those decisions on the best interest of the American people of you or self-interest? So Susan, I'm glad you asked about transparency because it has to be across the board. Joe has been incredibly transparent over many, many years.

The one thing we all know about Joe, he puts it all out there. He is honest. He is forthright. But Donald Trump, on the other hand, has been about covering up everything. Thank you, Senator Harris. I want to give you a chance to respond,

Vice President. Well, look, I respect the fact that Joe Biden spent 47 years in public life. I respect your public service as well. Thank you. The American people have a president was a businessman. It's a job creator who's paid tens of millions of dollars in taxes, payroll taxes, property taxes. He's created tens of thousands of American jobs. And the president said those

public reports are not accurate. And the president's also released literally stacks of financial disclosures. The American people can review just as the law allows. But the distinction here is that Joe Biden, 47 years in public service compared to President Donald Trump, who brought all of that experience four years ago. Thank you, thank you, Vice President. And turned to this economy around by cutting taxes, rolling back regulation, unleashing American energy, fighting for free and fair trade, and all of that's online if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

You know, that's a good segue into our third topic, which is about the economy. This has been another aspect of life for Americans. It's been so affected by this coronavirus. Thanks for listening to the full episode of the Young Turks. Support our work, listen to ad-free, access members-only bonus content, and more by subscribing to Apple Podcasts at apple.com slash t-y-t. I'm your host, Shank Huger, and I'll see you soon.