Share This Podcast

Jon, Jon, Tommy, and Dan break down the vice presidential debate between Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence, and discuss Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the second presidential debate. Then Beto O’Rourke talks to Jon Favreau about his efforts to turn Texas blue through his grassroots organization, Powered by People.

Show notes

VP Debate 

• NYT: Virus Takes Center Stage as Pence and Harris Skirmish in Debate 
• NYT: Six Takeaways From the Vice-Presidential Debate
• Politico: Key moments from Harris and Pence’s primetime showdown
• USA Today: ‘I’m speaking’ vs. ‘If I may finish’: Pence, Harris spar over COVID-19 and other top moments from the VP debate
• NY Mag – Highlights From the 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate
• LA Times – Harris-Pence debate: A round-by-round scorecard of the vice presidential matchup
• CNN: Pence attempts to defend Trump while ignoring his record on lying and fights over separation of powers
• Boston Globe: In VP debate, Pence, Harris lay out vastly different visions — minus last week’s fireworks 
• AP: Pence, Harris spar over COVID-19 in vice presidential debate
• Reuters – Judges, fracking and a fly: Six takeaways from the U.S. vice presidential debate
• Slate: What Twitter Has to Say About the Vice Presidential Debate 
• NYT: Fact-Checking the Vice-Presidential Debate 
• Axios: Harris calls Trump’s COVID response the greatest presidential failure in US history 
• NYT: A fly sat atop Mike Pence’s head for two minutes during the V.P debate
• WaPo- Analysis: 4 takeaways from the vice presidential debate 
• WaPo- Analysis: All honest politicians are the same. Each member of Trump’s ticket is dishonest in his own way 
• HuffPost: Karen Pence Ignores Vice Presidential Debate Rules, Forgoes Mask on Stage 
• Vox: 5 winners and 3 losers from the vice presidential debate 
• Buzzfeed – Kamala Harris And Mike Pence Talked About Everything EXCEPT The Last Six Days – The vice presidential debate barely touched on ongoing chaos of the last two weeks.
• Axios: VP debate brings back normal politics 
• New Yorker –  A Straightforward Vice-Presidential Debate About a Catastrophic Presidency
• CNN: Whatever the result of the election, we won’t have seen the last of Pence and Harris
• WaPo: In VP debate, Trump is again the issue as Pence tries to change the focus
• WaPo: All honest politicians are the same. Each member of Trump’s ticket is dishonest in his own way.
• NYT: Pence, Peerless Trump Defender, Confronts His Limits
• Politico: ‘Pence Proved Better at Politics Than His Running Mate’
• NYT: A fly sat atop Mike Pence’s head for two minutes during the V.P. debate. 
• Politico: Fly becomes breakout star of the debate 
• LA Times –  Review: Kamala Harris’ sterling debate was for every woman who’s been talked over by a man 
• BuzzFeed – Kamala Harris’s Response To Pence Interruptions During The Debate Is A New Meme
• WaPo: A night of head-shaking, lip-pursing and eyebrow-raising at the vice-presidential debate 
• Vox: “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking”: Kamala Harris repeatedly shut down Mike Pence’s interruptions at the debate
• CNN: Susan Page praised for questions but criticized for failing to follow up during VP debate 
• Politico: ‘Thank you, Mr. Vice President’: Another moderator struggles to control the conversation 
• Mediate – VP Debate Gets Heated After Pence Accuses Harris of ‘Slander’ Against Trump on Military, Susan Page Jumps in to Enforce Rules
• Politico: VP Debate: More dodgeball than hardball
• Yahoo – Debate moderator Susan Page loses her patience, scolds Pence and Harris for talking over her
• AP: VP Debate Takeaways: Pandemic looms over a more civil fight
• NBC News – Pence, Harris spar over federal Covid-19 response as Trump’s illness looms 
• WaPo: Pence and Harris clash under the shadow of a surging pandemic
• Guardian – Kamala Harris and Mike Pence clash over coronavirus response in vice-presidential debate
• Vox: How Mike Pence enabled Donald Trump’s botched Covid-19 response
• USA Today – White House coronavirus outbreak may have exposed thousands from Atlanta to Minnesota
• NYT: Plexiglass Barriers Won’t Stop the Virus at the Debate, Experts Warn 
• NYT: Trump Calls His Illness ‘a Blessing From God’ 
• Buzzfeed News: Mike Pence And Kamala Harris Were Both Asked About Breonna Taylor. Their Answers Show How Utterly Divided The Country Has Become.
• USA Today: Pence denies systemic racism, Harris decrys Trump administration ‘pattern’ of racism in historic debate
• NYT: An exchange about Breonna Taylor and George Floyd crystallizes the candidates’ opposing views on racial justice.
• Al Jazeera: 5 takeaways from the Pence-Harris US vice-presidential debate
• WaPo Op-Ed: Harris won by keeping the focus on Trump — and Biden
• WaPo: Fact Checker: Pence falsely claims Biden would raise taxes on every American
• NPR: Biden Would Raise Corporate Tax Rate, Some Income And Payroll Taxes
• HuffPo: As Kamala Harris Defended Fracking, Mike Pence Painted Her As A Green Radical
• NBC News: Fact check: Would a Biden administration ban fracking, as Pence claims?
• CBS News: Harris defends Biden’s climate plan, says his administration would not ban fracking
• NYT: Pence accuses Harris of wanting to pack the Supreme Court. She says the next president should fill the vacancy.
• WaPo: What is court packing, and why are some Democrats seriously considering it?
• Politico: Harris ducks questions about court packing
• CNN: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don’t want to talk about changes to the Supreme Court
• WaPo: At vice-presidential debate, questions were asked but many were not answered
• The Hill: Pence: ‘Slanders’ against Trump on armed forces ‘absurd’
• WSJ: Pence Paints Biden as Soft on China, but Democrat’s Position Looks Like Trump’s
• AZ Central: Arizona’s Kayla Mueller, ISIS hostage killed in Syria, becomes a focus of Pence-Harris debate
• NYT: Pence faults Biden in Kayla Mueller’s killing, saying she could have been rescued from ISIS.
• Axios: Pence to target Biden on terrorism, hostages in VP debate
• The Detroit News: Harris-Pence debate: Candidates spar on COVID-19, foreign policy
• NPR: Trump’s ‘America First’ Promise
• Reuters: The foreign policy issues that divide Trump and Biden
• WaPo Op-Ed: Kamala Harris’s foreign policy unites the ticket, if not the party
• CNN: The many times Trump has praised China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic (5/19)

Post-debate reaction

• CNN: Post debate CNN poll: Harris seen as winner in a contest that matched expectations 
• Vox: The first post-VP debate poll says Kamala Harris won
• NYT– Kamala Harris faced a double standard on the debate stage. 
• Mediate – ‘This Was Mike Pence’s Night’: Frank Luntz Says Panel of Undecided Voters Called Kamala Harris ‘Abrasive and Condescending’
• Daily Beast – Rick Santorum Interrupts Female Colleague to Argue Pence Didn’t Interrupt Kamala
• Vox: 5 winners and 3 losers from the vice presidential debate 
• WaPo- Analysis: 4 takeaways from the vice presidential debate 
• WaPo- Opinion: Harris won by keeping the focus on Trump — and Biden 
• WaPo- Analysis: All honest politicians are the same. Each member of Trump’s ticket is dishonest in his own way 
• WaPo- Opinions: An exclusive interview with the fly from the debate 
• Vox: Mike Pence played a week hand well 
• The Guardian- Opinion: Kamala Harris walked a tight-rope, but still wiped the floor with Mike Pence 
• The Atlantic: Without Trump Onstage, There Is No Chaos 
• WaPo- Opinion: Pence ably defended Trump in a way that few, including Trump, have managed to do 
• NYT- Analysis: Pence, Peerless Trump Defender, Confronts His Limits 
• Slate: What Twitter Has to Say About the Vice Presidential Debate 
• Boston Globe: In VP debate, Pence, Harris lay out vastly different visions — minus last week’s fireworks 
• Politico: a wave of polls paints a dire picture for Trump
• Fox News: Fox News Poll: Biden gains ground over Trump (10/07)