Mike Pence in Vice-presidential debate
On Abortion:
I am proud to serve a pro-life president
PENCE: I couldn't be more proud to serve as vice president to a president who stands without apology for the sanctity of human life. I'm pro-life. I don't apologize for it, and this is another one of those cases where there's such a dramatic contrast.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris support taxpayer funding of abortion all the way up to the moment of birth. Late term abortion. They want to increase funding to Planned Parenthood of America.
HARRIS: There's the issue of choice and I will always fight for a woman's right to make a decision about her own body. It should be her decision and not Donald Trump's. Let's look at what else is before the court. It's the Affordable Care Act literally
in the midst of a public health pandemic when 7 million people probably have what will be in the future considered a preexisting condition because you contracted the virus. Donald Trump is in court right now trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Civil Rights:
Trump condemns neo-Nazis and has Jewish grandchildren
The President condemned the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists and has done so repeatedly. You're concerned that he doesn't condemn neo-Nazis.
President Trump has Jewish grandchildren. His daughter and son-in-law are Jewish. This is a President who respects and cherishes all of the American people.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Crime:
Yes to justice for George Floyd; no to riots
I trust our justice system. There's no excuse for what happened to George Floyd. Justice will be served, but there's also no excuse for the rioting and looting that followed.
Flora Westbrook is with us here tonight in Salt Lake City. Just a few weeks ago, I stood at what used to be her salon. It was burned to the ground by rioters and looters. And Flora is still trying to put her life back together.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Energy & Oil:
Biden's plan is a $2 trillion version of Green New Deal
PENCE: Joe Biden said, "I guarantee that we will abolish fossil fuels." They have a $2 trillion version of the Green New Deal, that USA Today said really wasn't that very different from the original Green New Deal. More taxes, more regulation, banning
fracking, abolishing fossil fuel, crushing American energy and economic surrender to China is a prescription for economic decline. President Trump and I will keep America growing.HARRIS: Joe Biden will not end fracking, he has been very clear about
that.
PENCE: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would put us back in the Paris Climate Accord. They'd impose the Green New Deal, which would crush American energy and would crush American jobs. President Trump and I believe the progress we have made in a
cleaner environment has been happening because we have a free market economy. What's remarkable is the United States has reduced CO2 more than the countries that are still in the Paris Climate Accord, but we've done it through innovation.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Environment:
Our water and air are cleaner than ever; proud of our record
I'm very proud of our record on the environment. Our air and land are cleaner than any time ever recorded. Our water is among the cleanest in the world. The president signed the Outdoors Act. It's the largest investment in our public
lands and public parks in 100 years. So President Trump has made a commitment to conservation and to the environment.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Foreign Policy:
Blame China for the coronavirus
PENCE: China is to blame for the coronavirus. President Trump stood up to China that had been taking advantage of America for decades in the wake of Joe Biden's cheerleading for China.
President Trump made that decision before the end of January to suspend all travel from China. The American people deserve to know Joe Biden opposed President Trump's decision to suspend all travel from China.
HARRIS: The Trump administration's approach to China has resulted in the loss of American lives, American jobs. There is a weird obsession that President Trump has with getting rid of whatever accomplishment was achieved by President Obama and Vice
President Biden. They created the office responsible for monitoring pandemics. They got rid of it. There was a team of disease experts that President Obama and Vice President Biden dispatched to China to monitor what might happen. They pulled them out.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Foreign Policy:
Trump moved embassy to Jerusalem and destroyed ISIS
President Trump kept his word when we moved the American embassy to Jerusalem. NATO is now contributing more to our common defense than ever before thanks to President Trump's leadership. When President Trump came into office, ISIS had captured an area
of the Middle East, the size of Pennsylvania, but President Trump unleashed the American military and our armed forces destroy the ISIS caliphate and took down their leader, al-Baghdadi without one American casualty.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Free Trade:
Vote against USMCA was a vote against jobs
American people deserve to know Senator Kamala Harris was one of only 10 members of the Senate to vote against the USMCA (US-Mexico-Canada Agreement). It was a huge win for American auto workers.
It was a huge win for American farmers. But Senator you said it didn't go far enough on climate change, you put your radical environmental agenda ahead of American jobs.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Government Reform:
Universal mail-in voting means massive voter fraud
When you talk about accepting the outcome of the election, Senator, your party has spent the last three and a half years trying to overturn the results of the last election. You and your colleagues tried to impeach the president over a phone call.
President Trump and I are fighting every day in courthouses to prevent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris from changing the rules and creating this universal mail-in voting that'll create a massive opportunity for voter fraud.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Health Care:
We're producing millions of vaccines; ready by end of year
HARRIS: On January 28th, the vice president and the president were informed about the nature of this pandemic. They were informed that it's lethal in consequence, that it is airborne, that it will affect young people, and that it would be contracted
because it is airborne. Can you imagine if you knew on January 28th, as opposed to March 13th, what they knew, what you might've done to prepare? They knew, and they covered it up. The president said it was a hoax. PENCE:
Under President Trump's leadership, Operation Warp Speed, we believe we'll have literally tens of millions of doses of a vaccine before the end of this year. The reality is, when you look at the Biden plan,
it reads an awful lot like what our task force has been doing every step of the way. I think the American people know that this is a president who has put the health of America first.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Health Care:
Trust people to make smart decisions, mandates not needed
HARRIS: The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country. 210,000 dead. Over 7 million who have contracted this disease. One in five businesses closed.
We're looking at frontline workers who have been treated like sacrificial workers. We are looking at over 30 million people, who had to file for unemployment. PENCE: President Trump and I trust the
American people to make choices in the best interest of their health. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris consistently talk about mandates, and not just mandates with the Coronavirus,
but a government takeover of healthcare, the Green New Deal, all government control. We're about freedom and respecting the freedom of the American people.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Jobs:
Government mandates on energy kill jobs
HARRIS: Joe understands that the west coast is burning. Joe has seen and talked with the farmers in Iowa whose entire crops have been destroyed because of floods. Joe is about saying we're going to invest that in renewable energy, which is going to be
about the creation of millions of jobs. We will achieve net zero emissions by 2050, carbon neutral by 2035. We will also reenter the Climate Agreement with pride.PENCE: You just heard the Senator say that she's going to resubmit America to the
Paris climate accord. Look, the American people have always cherished our environment and will continue to cherish it. We've made great progress reducing CO2 emissions through American innovation and the development
of natural gas through fracking. We don't need a massive $2 trillion Green New Deal that would impose new mandates on businesses. Joe Biden wants us to retrofit four million business buildings.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Principles & Values:
Not fair to attack Amy Coney Barrett's faith
PENCE: Amy Coney Barrett will bring a lifetime of experience and a sizeable American family to the Supreme Court. We hope we don't see the kind of attacks on her Christian faith that we saw before.
When Judge Barrett was being confirmed for the court of appeals, Dick Durbin expressed concern that the dogma of her faith was a concern.
Senator, I know one of our judicial nominees you actually attacked, because they were a member of the Catholic Knights of Columbus.
HARRIS: Joe Biden and I are people of faith, and it's insulting to suggest that we would knock anyone for their faith, and in fact, Joe, if elected, will be only the second practicing Catholic as President of the United States.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Principles & Values:
In America, we debate and disagree, but then come together
In America, we believe in a free and open exchange of debate. It's how we've created the freest and most prosperous nation in the history of the world. I look at the relationship between Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. They were polar
opposites on the Supreme Court. Yet, the two of them were the closest of friends. In America, we can disagree. We can debate vigorously as Senator Harris and I have on this stage tonight. But when the debate is over, we come together as Americans.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On Tax Reform:
Trump tax cuts give $2,000 to average family
PENCE: [Biden] said he's going to repeal the Trump tax cuts. Joe Biden has said it twice in the debate last week that he's going to repeal the Trump tax cuts. That was tax cuts that gave the average working family $2,000 in a tax break every single year.
HARRIS: Joe Biden will not raise taxes on anyone who makes less than $400,000 a year. He has been very clear about that. Joe Biden will not end fracking, he has been very clear about that. Joe Biden is the one who, during the
Great Recession was responsible for the Recovery Act that brought America back. And now the Trump-Pence administration wants to take credit when they rode the coattails of
Joe Biden's success for the economy that they had at the beginning of their term. On the other hand, you have Donald Trump who has reigned over a recession that is being compared to the Great Depression.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
On War & Peace:
Trump supports and reveres the troops
PENCE: My son is in captain in the United States Marine Corps. My son-in-law's deployed in the United States Navy. I can assure all of you with sons and daughters serving in our military, President Donald Trump, not only respects, but
reveres all of those who serve in our armed forces and any suggestion, otherwise is ridiculous. Let me also say the American people deserve to know-
HARRIS: There was a counter strike on our troops in Iraq, and they suffered serious brain injuries, and do you know what Donald Trump dismissed them as? Headaches. This is a pattern where he referred to our men who are serving
as suckers and losers. Public reporting said Russia had bounties on the heads of American soldiers. Donald Trump had talked at least six times to Vladimir Putin and never brought up the subject.
Source: 2020 Vice-Presidential Debate in Utah
Oct 7, 2020
Page last updated: Oct 11, 2020