Pence does not want plexiglass on his side of the stage for Wednesday night’s debate.
Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris will take the debate stage Wednesday night in Salt Lake City where the stakes are unusually high for a vice-presidential debate, CBS News campaign reporter Musadiq Bidar reports. Both the Biden and Harris campaign remain in negotiations ahead of the showdown. Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told CBS News correspondent Nikole Killion Tuesday, “Both campaigns agreed to a 12-foot separation seated at the table, which is double the recommended distance.” A release by the commission Monday stated, “Plexiglass will be used as part of the [Commission on Presidential Debate’s] overall approach to health and safety.” The request was made by the Biden-Harris campaign and approved by the CPD, CBS Campaign reporter Tim Perry confirmed. However a senior official close to the vice president confirms Mr. Pence does not want plexiglass on his side of the stage, adding that CDC guidance recommends plexiglass only when a six-foot distance between individuals isn’t possible. The CPD says that there will be a “small number” of ticketed guests at the debate, which will take place at the University of Utah. Those in the debate hall will be required to take COVID tests and use masks. Anyone not wearing a mask “will be escorted out,” the CPD said. At the first presidential debate last week, President Trump’s family declined to wear masks in the debate hall. After a cantankerous first debate between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, political strategists feel the vice presidential candidates will bring more substance to the table. “We have vice presidential nominees that are younger and presumably healthier than the presidential nominees so there’s a greater than normal chance that one of these two will be President of the United States,” longtime Republican strategist Michael Steel told Bidar. David Kotchel, who ran Mitt Romney’s Iowa operations in 2008 and 2012, said “there’s more awareness among voters that this debate is more important than it has been in past years.” On Thursday of last week, before President Trump’s diagnosis and eventual hospitalizations, Bidar spoke with Republican officials and strategists to examine Pence’s role with the campaign now and how he can set himself up for 2024. You can read that article here. One day after leaving Walter Reed Medical Center to return to the White House, President Trump continued to downplay the risks of the coronavirus, while his doctor said the president is reporting “no symptoms” of COVID-19. Hours after the medical team treating him for COVID-19 cautioned that he’s “not out of the woods yet,” on Monday, Mr. Trump returned to White House shortly before 7 p.m., where he took off his mask and gave a thumbs up before walking inside. He soon tweeted a minute-long video from the balcony, saying he’d “learned so much about coronavirus” and that he might be immune to it. “One thing that’s for certain: Don’t let it dominate you,” he said of COVID-19. “Don’t be afraid of it. You’re going to beat it.” In a post shared on Twitter and Facebook Tuesday morning, the president once again compared COVID-19 to the flu, which has proven much less lethal and contagious than the coronavirus. Overstating the yearly death toll from the flu, Mr. Trump said Americans “have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid.” More than 210,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Twitter flagged the tweet, saying it violated the platform’s rules about “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19.” Facebook removed it entirely. President Trump expressed interest in going to the Oval Office Tuesday because he “feels good,” but protective measures are not in place for that to happen yet. CBS News White House correspondent Ben Tracy reports the White House is still creating a working space for him in the Map Room, which he will also likely use for taped video addresses and any television appearances. White House Communications Director Alyssa Farah said Tuesday that Americans “will likely hear from President Trump” later today. Mr. Trump also tweeted Tuesday that he has instructed his representatives to stop negotiating with House Democrats on a long-anticipated coronavirus stimulus package until after the election. The president accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi of “not negotiating in good faith,” but such a public declaration that the White House has ended negotiations on desperately needed aid to small businesses could hurt the president’s re-election prospects,28 days out. As for the president’s future debate appearance, the Trump campaign tells CBS News reporter Nicole Sganga the president intends to debate in-person, in Miami on October 15. “We will of course be relying on his medical team from Walter Reed and the White House medical unit,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh told CBS News, Tuesday. In his 21-minute speech at Gettysburg, Joe Biden did not mention President Trump’s name even one time, according to CBS News campaign reporter Bo Erickson. But Biden was clearly talking about the president’s leadership on the several crises the country is facing today: the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice, the economic slump and climate change. Biden wove together quotes from Lincoln and said today’s “battle for the soul of America” — Biden’s long-held campaign slogan — was like the division after the Civil War. “Today once again we are a house divided. But that my friends can no longer be. We are facing too many crises,” Biden said. “As I look across America today, I am concerned. The country is in a dangerous place. Our trust in each other is ebbing. Hope seems elusive. Too many Americans see our public life not as an arena for mediation of our differences but rather they see it as an occasion for total unrelenting partisan warfare.” In the historic setting, Biden shifted focus to current day fights over safety. “I do not believe that we have to choose between law and order, and racial justice in America. We can have both.” On the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden said, “This pandemic is not a red state or blue state issue. This virus doesn’t care whether you live – where you live or what political party you belong to. It affects us all, it will take anyone’s life. It’s a virus, it’s not a political weapon.” Overall, this is the well-tuned version of Biden’s stump speech from the primaries. This unity message has been overshadowed in recent weeks as the Democratic nominee focused on addressing current issues, but today — with the famous battle backdrop – he was able to put this all together. In a state that has been considered a battleground in recent presidential election years, one area that has consistently been considered a Republican stronghold is Duval County in Florida, reports CBS News campaign reporter LaCrai Mitchell. Home to Jacksonville — the state’s largest city by population — Duval County is considered by some Florida political scientists to be “quite polarized” in terms of race and political party. With a county supervisor of elections that is considered by some to be “not as proactive” as some of the elections supervisors in other large counties in the state, both Democrats and Republicans agree that this county with a population of nearly one million residents is not one to be ignored. Former Democratic Florida Representative Mia Jones, who represented a district within Duval County at the state level for eight years, said for many years Duval County has had very close races, making the area a target for candidates running for office who are now putting a great deal of effort in appealing to voters in the county and its surrounding areas. “A lot of people who are registered Democrat and for a number of years because of the landscape of the state, they have voted Republican,” said Jones. “But they have realized that they really lean more toward the Democratic values, and as a result, they are coming back to where they’re comfortable.” Republican Florida Representative Cord Byrd has represented parts of Duval County as a state representative for the past four years, and is up for re-election this cycle. Byrd said that his party has been a “victim of its own success” in Duval County and that Duval Republicans in some ways started to take the Republican-leaning nature of the county for granted, a move that Byrd said Democrats maximized. “After the 2016 election, [Democrats] didn’t shut down their operations and continued,” said Byrd. “I think the Republican Party obviously is aware of that now and are making changes and are making great strides and realize that we can’t take Duval County for granted anymore.” Byrd added that Republicans still hold the mayor’s office in Duval’s county seat of Jacksonville and that while Republicans have maintained control in the county, Democrats are fighting for power, which makes the area a competitive region in the state. “When you look at the state… Duval County certainly is one of the largest Republican-controlled areas,” said Byrd. “Candidates recognize that, they recognize that there are a lot of votes here, that the people are motivated in turnout.” According to data compiled by the Duval County Supervisor of Elections office, turnout in the county has been at least 68% in the past five presidential elections dating back to 2000. Though the Republican presidential candidates won each of these contests, political scientists point to narrowing margins of victory and changing demographics in the county as signs of a changing tide. In 2016, Trump won Duval County by less than 6,000 votes — or just more than 1% — a decrease from the 1.9% that Republican John McCain beat Democrat Barack Obama by in 2008, and the 3.6% that Republican Mitt Romney beat Mr. Obama by in 2012. Democrats also point to the 2018 midterm election where both Democratic Senatorial candidate Bill Nelson and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum won this county with just over 50% of the vote, respectively, as a sign that the county is trending Democratic. As white middle and upper class families reportedly move to surrounding counties like St. Johns County — the population of white residents in the county continues to shrink. Today 52% of the Duval County’s population is white according to Census data. As minority communities and younger populations burgeon, Duval’s political landscape is said to be reflecting such shift. “I don’t think you can have a candidate assume that because someone is a Democrat or assume that because they’re a Republican, that you would or would not have an opportunity to win them over because people are voting across party lines a great deal within our community,” contended Jones. “So goes Florida, so goes the nation,” said Byrd. “And so goes Duval County, so goes Florida.” Former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg told “CBS This Morning” that Vice President Pence is a “very effective debater” ahead of the vice presidential debate between Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris. “I’ve seen him debating for governor and debating for vice president as well,” Buttigieg, a former South Bend, Indiana mayor, said. “He has an ability to deliver lines with a high degree of confidence whether they’re true or not.” CBS News campaign reporter Jack Turman says Buttigieg, who advocated for Supreme Court reform during his presidential run, deflected when asked about if Harris could clarify the Democratic ticket’s position on court packing. Buttigieg said the debate will focus on issues that are “at stake right now.” Buttigieg added, “We’ve got less than 30 days until the election and a matter of weeks before the court may entertain a case that could decide whether pre-existing care – pre-existing condition coverage — is taken away from millions of Americans as Republicans try to overthrow the Affordable Care Act in its entirety.
