Distance and plexiglass: Democrats reportedly insist on BARRIER during upcoming Pence-Harris VP debate

Plexiglass barriers will reportedly be used in the upcoming debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Joe Biden’s running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, said to be requested by Democrats after President Donald Trump caught Covid-19.

Trump tested positive for the coronavirus just two days after debating Biden in Cleveland, Ohio. While Biden has so far tested negative, the Commission on Presidential Debates – the NGO running the process – decided to almost double the distance between Pence and Harris, from seven feet (2.1 meters) to 13 (four meters). 

On Monday, the CPD agreed to put plexiglass barriers not just between the candidates, but between them and the moderator, Politico reported, citing “people familiar with the discussions.”

The debate is scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City, Utah on Wednesday. Harris’ team was reportedly arguing in favor of the barriers, while Pence’s campaign opposed it. 

“If Senator Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it,” Politico quoted Pence’s spokeswoman Katie Miller. 

Later on Monday, Harris’s press secretary Sabrina Singh reacted by saying that Pence is “supposedly in charge of the [Covid-19] task force and should be advocating for this too.”

Miller had contracted the virus herself this spring, and recovered from it after a three-week absence. Her comments did not go over well with some Democrats.

Trump’s critics have already spent the weekend melting down over the president insisting he was feeling fine, his foray into the crowd of admirers outside the Walter Reed Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland – even if inside an armored limo while wearing a mask – and his release on Monday evening, feeling “better than 20 years ago.”

Those who chose to think in practical terms praised the plexiglass decision, however, pointing to the stunt at the Senate debate in South Carolina over the weekend. Democrat Jaime Harrison brought his own sheet of plastic to the debate with Sen. Lindsey Graham, the Republican incumbent, citing an abundance of caution.

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