President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis Oct. 2, following the first presidential debate Sept. 29, raised the stakes for the Oct. 7 vice presidential debate, which continued as planned. 

Following the breakout of COVID-19 cases within the White House, the vice presidential debate amplified safety protocols and installed plexiglass barriers between candidates Vice President Mike Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris, who were positioned 12 feet away from each other. In addition, all audience members were required to wear a mask. 

Moderated by Susan Page, the Washington bureau chief for USA Today, the debate included nine segments in which each candidate was given two minutes to speak without interruption. Page preceded the debate with a note for the candidates to remain civil, as political commentators have noted the first presidential debate was anything but.

In the Sept. 29 presidential debate, according to analysis by The Washington Post, Trump interrupted vice presidential candidate Joe Biden 71 times, and Trump was interrupted by the former vice president 22 times. In comparison, Pence interrupted Harris 10 times and was conversely interrupted by her five times. Despite the lower count, during one moment in the event, Harris exhaustedly repeated to Pence, “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking.”

Justin Koppelman, Chapman University’s associate director of Student Engagement, spoke at a post-debate discussion hosted by Civic Engagement. During this event, Koppelman asserted the vice presidential debate served as an improvement when compared to the first presidential debate.

“I appreciated that it felt more traditional,” Koppelman said. “I left this one feeling more informed than the last.”

Topics of discussion for candidates covered race and the criminal justice system, economic sustainability, climate change, government transparency and the COVID-19 pandemic. When questioned about the Biden campaign’s plan, Harris called the Trump administration’s response to COVID-19 the “greatest failure” of an American presidency. Pence, who serves as the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, was put in a position to defend the current administration’s handling of the pandemic and respond to the United States’ death toll compared to other wealthy countries.

Both candidates dodged direct questions throughout the 90-minute debate. While Pence avoided responding to the Republicans’ interest to overthrow the Affordable Care Act, Harris avoided responding to the Democrats’ interest in packing the Supreme Court.

On the issue of police reform and racial justice, particularly in light of the case of Breonna Taylor’s death, Harris addressed her career as a former prosecutor and expressed a need for reforms. Areas of improvement, she said, include placing bans on chokeholds, private prisons and cash bail as well as decriminalizing marijuana. To this extent, Harris emphasized that “bad cops are bad for good cops.”

Pence stated that while he found the death of Breonna Taylor tragic, he trusts the justice system. Additionally, he brought up the protests and riots that followed the death of George Floyd in May, stating “(there is) no excuse for rioting and looting.”

While the vice presidential debate proved more civil than the first presidential debate, it appears as if Trump and Biden won’t have another opportunity in the near future to engage in public discourse. Trump’s diagnosis left lingering questions about the safety of progressing on to the second presidential debate, which the Commission on Presidential Debates ultimately canceled Oct. 9.