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

Highlights from the first and only matchup between Biden, Trump's running mates

With plexiglass and more than 12 feet of distance separating them, Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic nominee Sen. Kamala Harris of California debated in Salt Lake City in the first and only one-on-one matchup between the vice presidential candidates.

The showdown came as President Donald Trump and several in his orbit have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, raising questions on a transfer of power to the vice president were Trump at 74 -- or Democratic nominee Joe Biden at 77 -- to become too ill to serve.

The debate's format was divided into nine 10-minute sections with each candidate having two minutes to respond to the opening question in each segment and the remaining time allowed for follow ups. Moderator Susan Page, Washington Bureau chief of USA Today, did not release the topics in advance.

The sole vice presidential debate follows Trump and Biden's chaotic debate last week in Cleveland.


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Pence vs. Harris on the issues: Abortion

He speaks at March for Life, the nation's largest annual rally against abortion. She presented a landmark plan to protect abortion rights.

Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris are set to face off on Wednesday in a debate bound to display their drastically opposing views on the issue, which takes on renewed urgency as the Senate considers the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court. Harris is in the unique position of being a sitting Senator who will decide Barrett's fate ahead of the election.

The two vice presidential candidates represent opposite sides of the spectrum on reproductive rights, as nationwide support for abortion rights remains high. A July 2019 ABC News/Washington Post poll found 60% of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, with only 24% saying abortion access should be harder.

A May 2020 poll by Gallup found similar results, with only 20% of respondents saying abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

Read more on the candidates' positions on abortion here.

-ABC News' Alexandra Svokos


Pence charged with sorting out Trump-centered chaos at VP debate

If Wednesday night showcases Sen. Kamala Harris the prosecutor, consider the new evidence added to her case.

And if Vice President Mike Pence is cast as the best explainer and defender of Trumpism, consider how much harder his job has become.

It's been eight short but incredibly long days since the first presidential debate. Since then, President Donald Trump has struggled to denounce white supremacism; refused to commit to accepting the results of the election; spread falsehoods about the voting process; been diagnosed with COVID-19, amid a full-fledged Washington outbreak; choreographed a triumphant return to the White House to urge the nation not to let the pandemic "dominate"; pulled the plug on further coronavirus relief talks until after the election and then reconsidered the move in some late-night tweets.

Enter the number twos -- in a campaign where there's seldom been more attention on the potential need for their services.

Pre-debate squabbles in Salt Lake City include fighting over plexiglass partitions and more space between the candidates to accommodate social distancing. What's really separating the vice-presidential candidates, though, are campaigns of the men at the top of the ticket -- who have distinct styles that are nothing like those of their running mates or each other.

Four years ago, it was Pence holding steady and calm in a debate with a feisty Sen. Tim Kaine, who faced blowback for his interruptions in a mild-mannered affair. Just last year, Harris' main debate opponent was the man she now shares a ticket with -- bringing set-piece attacks that appeared to nick former Vice President Joe Biden.

Now, amid the chaos of the moment and the relative stability of the campaign, Harris will bring a case that Pence might be uniquely equipped to defend.

-ABC News' Political Director Rick Klein


Harris tests negative for coronavirus

Sen. Harris underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 yesterday and COVID-19 was not detected, per a Harris aide.

-ABC News' Averi Harper


Kamala Harris: Everything you need to know

California Sen. Kamala Harris was selected as former Vice President Joe Biden's running mate on Aug. 11. She is the first woman of color on a major party's ticket, and if elected, she'd be the first woman and first woman of color to serve as vice president.

Her nomination came after serving as senator for California and as the state's attorney general -- and after her own, unsuccessful presidential nomination run. She suspended her presidential bid on Dec. 3, 2019 because, she wrote in an email to supporters, she didn't have the financial resources to continue.

Read more on Harris' background here.

-ABC News' Tessa Weinberg and Sruthi Palaniappan


FACT CHECK: Trump released financial records required by law, but has been significantly less transparent than Biden, predecessors

HARRIS' CLAIM: "Joe Biden has been so incredibly transparent, and certainly by contrast, the president has not. Both in terms of health records, but also let's look at taxes. We now know because of great investigative journalism that Donald Trump paid $750 in taxes. When I first heard about it, I literally said, you mean $750,000? And it was like, no, $750. We now know Donald Trump owes and is in debt for $400 million."

PENCE'S CLAIM: "The president said those public reports are not accurate and the president's also released literally stacks of financial disclosures the American people can review just as the law allows."

FACT CHECK: As a presidential candidate in 2016 and as a sitting president since, Donald Trump has released annual financial disclosure reports filed to the Federal Election Commission and the Office of Government Ethics, as required by federal laws. Trump's annual personal financial records, which are nearly 100-pages each, show his source of income, other assets, as well as liabilities.

Trump, however, has not released his personal tax records, which is not required by law but has been a decades-long tradition that has been followed by his predecessors in the White House.

Biden and Harris have differentiated themselves from Trump by releasing their federal and state tax returns -- most recently just last week, showing Biden and his wife paid roughly $290,000 in taxes to the federal government in 2019, and Harris and her husband paid about $1.2 million in federal and state taxes last year.

Harris' claim that Trump paid just $750 in taxes comes from The New York Times' recent report. According to the Times, Trump's tax records show that he paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for president and his first year in the White House.

The report also stated that Trump is personally responsible for loans and other debts totaling $421 million, "with most of it coming due within four years."

--ABC News' Soorin Kim