Pence, Harris face off in VP debate with diverging views of America

In the days since President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden took the stage for their first presidential debate in Cleveland, Ohio, last week, the coronavirus has become even more of a central campaign issue than ever as the vice presidential candidates prepare for their only debate in Salt Lake City, Utah, Wednesday night.

The way the Trump administration has handled the pandemic is likely to be central to the debate as the White House deals with a cluster of COVID-19 cases, including the infection of Trump himself, amid a campaign and administration that have downplayed the virus and flouted the advice of health experts.

On Wednesday night, Trump's stance on masks, his decision to restart large campaign rallies that pack thousands together with no opportunity to socially distance and his admission to Bob Woodward that he downplayed the severity of the coronavirus will likely be brought up, with the spate of White House coronavirus cases giving Harris new ammunition to claim the administration hasn't taken the pandemic seriously enough.

Pence may also be asked to answer for Trump's words, comparing COVID-19 to the flu as recently as Tuesday and previously saying the virus would just "disappear."

Harris has previously said Trump has shown "a reckless disregard for the wellbeing of the American people" by failing to contain the outbreak and is likely to continue that line of attack.

"Even now, some eight months into this crisis, Donald Trump still won’t take responsibility. He still won’t act," Harris said in a speech on Aug. 27.

Pence will likely defend Trump by saying he ordered the manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE), sent ventilators to states and shut down travel from China as evidence he sprung into action early on. He may use Trump's short hospital stay as evidence of the progress made with regard to therapeutic drugs and to boost the president's position that Americans shouldn't let coronavirus "dominate" their lives.

-ABC News' Justin Gomez and Averi Harper

In light of President Trump's positive COVID-19 diagnosis and subsequent concerns from Harris' team, the Commission on Presidential Debates agreed to add additional safety precautions to Wednesday's debate at the University of Utah.

Unlike last week's presidential debate, everyone in the audience will be required to wear a face mask or covering and those who don't will be escorted out of the venue.

"They've got to wear a mask, and if they take their mask off they're gonna be escorted out, and I don't care who they are, they'll be escorted out," Frank Fahrenkopf, chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, told ABC News.

Harris and Pence will be tested prior to the debate, according to the commission, a change from the presidential debate when campaigns were responsible for testing their candidates and traveling parties.

And the candidates will be separated by more than just the issues -- or at least one of them will be. 

After Pence's close proximity to others who have tested positive for COVID-19, the Harris campaign requested plexiglass barriers be used at the debate and the commission agreed -- but the Pence campaign said Tuesday that they never agreed to a plexiglass partition. 

A senior administration official in Pence's office told ABC News Tuesday that the CPD decided to publicize the new safety protocols before any formal agreement was made and that the moderator and the Harris campaign can do as they want, "but we do not."

The official said Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines recommend plexiglass whenever 6 feet of separation isn't possible, but noted the candidates will be 12-feet apart on stage. The comment fell in line with Pence's chief of staff Marc Short who told The Washington Post Tuesday that plexiglass is "not needed."

Pence's communications director, Katie Miller, who tested positive for COVID-19 in May, also responded to the request in a statement to Axios earlier this week saying, "If Sen. Harris wants to use a fortress around herself, have at it."

Following news that Miller's husband, senior Trump aide Stephen Miller, tested positive for the coronavirus, she reportedly left Utah and a spokesperson declined to comment if Pence would agree to plexiglass.

-ABC News Justin Gomez, Averi Harper and Ben Gittleson