In Case You Missed It

Language says a lot. The words you chose, the way you say them, and the things you don't say are all equally powerful tools of getting your message across. As I watched the Vice Presidential election recently, certain moments sent alarm bells off in my mind, but they went by so fast, I had to slow down and go back to a transcript of the evening to be sure I understood what had happened and why my spider-sense was tingling. Senator Harris and Vice President Pence are both excellent debaters, good at choosing their words and responding in the moment to further their agenda. It was actually Vice President Pence's skills as a speaker that, by the end of the night, concerned me the most. Where Trump frequently comes across as a bull in a China shop, Pence is more like a vine invading your garden--appearing harmless and normal until it has wound around and choked the very plants you're trying to grow. 

In case you missed it, here are some of the key moments of revelation for me. 

1. Pence undermined a fair election in the country he is Vice President of:

Before completely dodging the question about how he and Trump would handle losing the election and agreeing to a peaceful transition of power, and going on a tirade of insidious lies to suggest the election and Democrats shouldn't be trusted, (44:55-47:08) Pence said something even more subtle but no less powerful:

"if somehow you win this election" (28:03)

The word "somehow" is not necessary in this phrase, it's added here to suggest that them winning would be remarkable or unbelievable. This is no doubt keeping in-step with Trump's statement that Biden would only win if the election were rigged. 

Rewind to where we were at this time 4 years ago, when Trump was trailing in the polls, the Access Hollywood tape had come out, and no one (including Trump, if you believe sources) actually believed Trump would win, and perhaps this comment--if said by Secretary Clinton--could go without much scrutiny. But this is an absurd statement to make to an opponent who is consistently leading in the polls and has every reason to believe they have an equal, if not better, shot at winning. The term is overused a lot these days, but honestly, it's gaslighting, and it's setting up a false reality where the only "legitimate" election results are those favoring Trump. For the sitting Vice President to do that in his own country is, at best, a scary political play, and at worst, a gross abuse of his office to undermine our democracy. 

2. Outside of the debate, Senator Harris is rarely shown the same deference that Vice President Pence is:

Susan Page: (12:42)

I’m sorry. Kamala Harris, Senator Harris, I mean, I’m sorry.

Kamala Harris: (12:46)

That’s fine, I’m Kamala.

Susan Page: (12:47)

No, no, you’re Senator Harris to me.

Why did this moment stand out to me? Because outside of the debate, so many people are comfortable referring to Senator Harris as "Kamala" but you never hear them talking about "Mike." Turns out, I'm not the only one who noticed this. According to one study of doctors, women are far less likely to be introduced as "Doctor So-and-So" by their male colleagues, and since their male colleagues are more numerous than their female colleagues, that means a lot fewer times they're referred to by title. This may seem like a small thing to you, but in the last election when everyone talked about "Crooked Hillary" instead of, say "Secretary Clinton" it gave them license to ignore an extremely impressive list of credentials and qualifications for the role of President. In this debate, VP Pence very rarely made that mistake, and stuck to referring to her as Senator, which I appreciated. When speaking off the cuff, though, he didn't remember his well-trained manners as much, saying:

"it’s essentially the same plan as you co-sponsored with AOC when she submitted it in the Senate."

I believe he was referring to Congressperson (or Congresswoman) Ocasio-Cortez. I got the impression that he was referring to Senator Harris as "Senator" less out of respect for her office, and more out of a training that said he should convey more esteem than he feels, but I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. The rest of the media should take note. 

3. Vice President Pence Interrupts...a lot.

Pence interrupted Harris twice as much as she did him, and he frequently needed to be told to give her the uninterrupted time that he had just enjoyed. He also plowed over his time and the moderator of the debate with almost every question - even when he was not answering the question. Over the course of the debate, I observed Senator Harris doing this more often, but it was clearly an attempt to vie for equal time with what Vice President Pence was taking. She finished her answers more succinctly in the beginning. 

4. The candidates dodged what they didn't want to answer, and the moderator let them

Here are the questions that the candidates basically didn't answer in any direct or meaningful way when posed by the moderator:

Pence didn't answer:

• Why is the US death toll, as a percentage of our population, higher than that of almost every other wealthy country?
  
• If Roe V Wade is overturned, what would you want Indiana to do? Would you want your home state to ban all abortions? 
  
• How would your administration protect Americans with preexisting conditions to have access to affordable insurance if the Affordable Care Act is struck down?
  
• If vice president Biden is declared the winner and president Trump refuses to accept a peaceful transfer of power, what would be your role and responsibility as vice president? What would you personally do?

Both didn't answer:

• 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?
• How would you describe our fundamental relationship with China? Competitors? Adversaries? Enemies? (though both did discuss China, neither really answered this)

(There were no moderator-posed questions that Senator Harris alone completely dodged)

5. Vice President Pence would be bad at a game of telephone

We've all played the game as kids where someone says something, and then the next person has to repeat it. Of course, I'm being disingenuous here, because Vice President Pence doesn't accidentally misrepresent what Senator Harris says, he willfully twists it, counting on people to hear him say it. Any woman who has probably had the experience of saying something, having it ignored, and then hearing a man repeat just what she said...and having that listened to. Plenty of articles confirm that this isn't just happening in women's heads. What's dangerous here in the debate is that VP Pence is intentionally misrepresenting what Senator Harris says, and he can count on his gender to carry his version of what happened further with listeners. I had to go back to the transcript to see what actually happened. Here is one example:

Harris says: 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 the vice president is the head of the task force and knew on January 28th, how serious this was. And then, thanks to Bob Woodward, we learned that they knew about it. And then when that was exposed, the vice president said, when asked, “Well, why didn’t you all tell anybody?” He said, “Because the president wanted people to remain calm.”

Pence says:  But when you say what the American people have done over these last eight months, hasn’t worked, that’s a great disservice to the sacrifices the American people have made-

We have one more debate to go in this whole ordeal, and you can believe, I'll be listening very closely.