WASHINGTON — The vice presidential debate is usually the undercard of the fall campaign, a secondary clash between the understudies of the major party tickets.
Not this year.
President Trump’s battle with COVID-19 has dramatically upped the stakes for Vice President Mike Pence and California Senator Kamala Harris as they prepare to face off Wednesday night in Salt Lake City.
In no other election in US history has the audience had such a stark reminder that the vice president will be just a heartbeat away from becoming commander in chief, historians and political analysts said.
Trump, 74, and Biden, 77, are the oldest major party presidential nominees the nation has ever seen, and they’re running in the midst of a pandemic that has hit the US as hard as any developed nation.
“This is as intriguing, and perhaps, as important as a vice presidential debate could possibly get,” longtime Democratic pollster Paul Maslin said.
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