 After a number of people within Trump's inner circle tested positive for COVID-19, the latest of which being Stephen Miller, there was a real question as to whether or not the vice presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence would even happen. But thankfully it is happening and there's a lot that I want to talk about because I want to go over what we can expect from tonight's debate. And I also want to talk about the kerfuffle surrounding Plexiglas and whether or not each candidate would have a Plexiglas barrier around them because that makes sense. If Mike Pence is part of the administration where they are currently unable to contain COVID and they're not doing contact tracing, you think that they would want to take extra precautions to protect Kamala Harris and the moderator from Mike Pence potentially exposing them. Now I get, you know, he tested negative and they are constantly testing the candidates. But you don't know if somebody exposed you after you tested negative before the debate given how many people in Trump's administration have COVID-19. So I would want to take extra precautions, but Mike Pence doesn't want to do that. And it seems like Kamala Harris, as well as the Commission on Presidential Debates, do want to do that. So for more on this situation, we go to the Washington Post who explains Vice President Pence is requesting that no Plexiglas dividers be placed on his side of the stage at Wednesday night's Vice Presidential Debate. After an announcement Monday by the Commission on Presidential Debates that dividers had been agreed to as a safety measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Mark Schor, the Vice President's Chief of Staff, said the Vice President's team does not view Plexiglas dividers as medically necessary given other safety measures at the debate, including a 12-foot distance between Pence and Senator Kamala Harris and daily testing of both candidates. The Commission and the Biden campaign both said Tuesday they understood that the Pence team was in agreement with the notion of Plexiglas barriers, but the Pence team suggested they did not want any such dividers around the Vice President, regardless of what Harris does. Quote, if she wants it, she's more than welcome to surround herself with Plexiglas if that makes her feel more comfortable, short said, but it's not needed. Now, I see their point about it being a little bit too much because sure, if you are putting them 12 feet apart, that's pretty safe. However, if I'm Kamala Harris, I'm opting for that Plexiglas because again, we don't know where Mike Pence has been. He's getting tested frequently, right? But we don't know if after he tested negative before the debate, he came into contact with someone else from Trump's administration who had coronavirus. So if I'm Kamala Harris, I'm not taking any chances. I want that Plexiglas barrier. And guess what? If I'm Mike Pence, I'd want that Plexiglas barrier as well because guess what? The American people do not believe the Trump administration is taking this seriously. So what do I do if I'm Mike Pence? Even if I think it's unnecessary, and maybe it is, just for optics sake to prove to America that I am willing to take this seriously, go above and beyond to make sure that we contain the spread of the virus, I'm putting up the barriers because it's not that big of a deal. But he's saying no, she can have it because I think it'll make her look foolish. That's the implication at least. He didn't say this explicitly, but is it gonna make her look foolish? Or is it going to make it seem as if she is trying to take it seriously? Like you have to understand that there's a real optics issue here and Trump and his team aren't helping with that battle. So, you know, this is fascinating to me. I think that the Plexiglas divider is a good idea and you know, if I'm Kamala Harris, again, I'm opting for it. Now getting into the substance of the debate first and foremost in terms of what I expect, I expect a better debate than the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden because Kamala Harris is much more charismatic than Joe Biden by a lot and Mike Pence, he is a lot less loud than Donald Trump. They may have the same exact belief system, but Mike Pence is less belligerent. So there may actually be a debate that is at least somewhat substantive or at least not the dumpster fire that the first presidential debate was. So my expectations are a little bit higher, although I will say the bar is pretty low. Now, here's the thing. I think that a lot of people going into this debate are expecting Kamala Harris to clobber Mike Pence. And I do agree with that analysis because I think she is a phenomenal debater. When she's at her best, she's one of the best debaters in the country and she's charismatic. She knows how to make a point. She knows how to put on the show. But she doesn't always bring her A game. So at that first debate in the Democratic Party primary between her and I think it was 10 other candidates, she annihilated Joe Biden to the point where a lot of us thought this might actually be the downfall of Joe Biden's campaign. And sure, it was a little bit overly rehearsed and too scripted. But still, she was able to strategically not just say the right things at a debate, but get her opponents back into a corner. And she made it difficult for them to get out of that corner. Now, if she does that to Mike Pence at least twice during this debate, I think you can sufficiently say she won this debate. However, you know, even though I expect her to bring her A game to this debate, there is a possibility that she does face plan because, you know, towards the end of her campaign, before she decided to suspend her campaign, I remember her just having a really bizarre debate performance where she was trying to pressure Elizabeth Warren to agree that we should ban Trump from Twitter or something insignificant like that. And even if she still used all the correct tactics that you use at a debate to get your opponent into a corner, it didn't land because nobody really cared about this to begin with. And Elizabeth Warren kind of just shrugged it off. So, you know, if Kamala doesn't read the room, then I think that she won't easily win as we're all expecting to. However, having said that I do expect her to win. But there is a caveat and there is an area where she could utterly face plan if she doesn't plan accordingly. Now, in this area, health care, this is a concern because what Mike Pence and Donald Trump has been saying about Joe Biden is that he's a socialist. Or if he's not a socialist, he's controlled by the radical left. Now anytime Trump says this, Joe Biden says, No, I'm not. I beat the socialist. So what happens in this debate, if Mike Pence says, you guys are socialists, you support Medicare for all. What is Kamala Harris going to do because what she does here could make or break her in terms of winning this debate. If she says, No, I don't support Medicare for all, then she's doomed because then Mike Pence can say, but you supported it in the primaries. Didn't you propose your own alternative to Bernie Sanders, which you said was Medicare for all? Weren't you defending Medicare for all at the debates against Joe Biden attacking your plan? What does she do there? Because either way, she's going to come out looking wishy washy and it's not going to be a good look because if she just automatically does what Joe Biden does and says, No, I don't support Medicare for all. You're wrong. You did say that you support it. Now we all had our doubts that you were genuine and you weren't just trying to get the left to support you, but if you do that, it's going to be a disaster. So there's a couple of ways that she can handle this to not look completely wishy washy because she did flip flop on Medicare for all and make no mistake about it. Even if I doubted that she actually supported it in the first place, she flipped on it. So how do you get out of this not looking like a hypocrite? Well, she can either brush this aside and attack Mike Pence because, of course, his plan for healthcare is non-existent and Trump's administration signed onto a lawsuit that could overturn the Affordable Care Act, which will eliminate protections for patients with pre-existing conditions. She could just sidestep that, brush it off and attack. That's one way to handle this. Another way to handle this, which I think will be the best way to handle it, is to not run away from Medicare for all. She can say, you know what? I don't necessarily agree with Bernie's bill. That iteration of Medicare for all maybe goes a bit too far, but I do personally support my own version of Medicare for all, which I believe is universal healthcare. Now, Joe Biden and I, we don't agree. We don't see eye to eye on this particular issue. He supports the public option and in theory, I support that as well since I am his running mate. However, I want to push him to do better. So yeah, we just have a genuine disagreement here, but I'm going to be pushing closer for, you know, a Medicare for all type plan. Now, if she says this, she's going to look better because guess what? If Americans think you support Medicare for all, if people come away from this debate thinking that you support Medicare for all, that's really good for you. That's really, really good for you because guess what? Medicare for all is a very popular policy. A majority of Americans support Medicare for all and during a pandemic, you don't want to instinctively and reflexively run away from Medicare for all. If you leave it so that way, there's an open question and make us think you're willing to debate Joe Biden on this issue and perhaps even challenge him, you're going to look better. But if you run away from it, as I suspect she will, but hope she doesn't, if this comes up, then you're going to look wishy-washy. You're going to look like a flip-flopper and it's not going to be good. Now, here's what I will say. Overall, let's say this disaster scenario comes to fruition, which is really the only true pitfall that could leave a lasting mark on Kamala Harris. Is this going to matter in the end? I'd argue no. Even if she faced plans on the question of healthcare and Medicare for all, I think that overall, her debate performance will be good enough to where people can give her a pass for that. I think on COVID-19, her and Biden have both been consistent and Americans want leadership here. So, as long as she goes into this debate acting like an adult when it comes to dealing with this pandemic, that is where she'll have a leg up. Black Lives Matter may come up. She could basically both sides this easily and at least somewhat appease most Americans watching. She's not going to appease everyone. She's not going to appease leftists like myself who want to defund the police. But what she can say is, look, I was the top cop in California. I was attorney general. But as a person of color in America, I see how communities of color and black Americans are disproportionately targeted by police. If she at least seems at least somewhat sensitive to the Black Lives Matter movement, which I think she will project that, then for the most part, she's going to do just fine. And at the end of the day, the vice presidential debate isn't as important as the presidential debate, particularly that first debate. And we already saw that, you know, when it comes to first impressions, Trump fucked up because he was a little bit too aggressive. He interrupted more than 150 times, according to Chris Wallace, and that turned off a lot of people. Hence why Joe Biden is seeing a pretty substantial bump in the polls. I mean, what a CNN poll showed him getting 16 points on Donald Trump, that is fucking insane. So I mean, anything that she does, let's say she face plants and loses this debate, I don't think it'll be enough to change the overall trajectory. But I think there will be some interest in the vice presidential debate. So I think that she does overall have to do a good job. And I suspect that she will do a good job. But she needs to be prepared. I suspect she will. And she needs to not botch the healthcare question, given her wishy washiness on this issue, that has plagued her campaign. I mean, if you all of a sudden just abandoned Medicare for all, we can just go back a year. The GOP will go back a year, and they'll find debate footage of you on that stage defending it against Joe Biden and John Delaney. And you don't want that for yourself. Now, will that land? Not necessarily, because I think most people understand that Republicans don't even have a healthcare plan. So the bar's really low. But still, you don't want to give them any ammunition, and you don't want to run away from a policy that is extremely popular. Joe Biden has consistently done this. He's ran away from Bernie Sanders at town halls and condemned socialism saying, I beat the socialist. Again, you don't want to run away from things that are popular. This is politics 101. And that's what Trump doesn't understand this time. So don't be dense and do the same thing that Joe Biden is doing, Kamala. So we'll see overall, I expect her to perform very well against Mike Pence. Again, she's one of the better debaters in the country. I think she does a really good job. I think she's charismatic. And I think that she can potentially really help herself and Joe Biden cross that finish line, assuming there's no catastrophes take place. But I am hoping that there will at least be a little bit more of, dare I say, a civil discussion at this debate, even though that word now has negative connotations because of everyone screaming about civility and decorum. But I mean, just to see two adults disagree respectfully after coming away from that Joe Biden Trump debate, that would honestly be refreshing to see it would be a breath of fresh air. So bring the plexiglass, come prepared, and make sure you can point out the failures of Mike Pence since Trump did appoint him to lead the coronavirus task force. I mean, there's so much for Kamala Harris to work with. I can't imagine her not bringing up his failings in multiple areas. Like this is easy. Like this is the easiest difficulty. She has charisma. Mike Pence does not. She, you know, I think is a more skilled debater. We haven't seen Mike Pence debate that much. So we'll see. I'm certainly looking forward to being at least entertained, but hopefully it won't be a dumpster fire.