Pence and Harris clash under the shadow of a surging pandemic

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October 8, 2020 at 12:09 a.m. EDT

Vice President Pence and Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala D. Harris confronted one another at the first and only vice-presidential debate on Oct. 7. (Video: The Washington Post)

SALT LAKE CITY — The vice-presidential nominees clashed Wednesday over the leadership of President Trump and the policy plans of Democrat Joe Biden in a debate held under the extraordinary circumstances of a surging viral pandemic that had confined the incumbent president to a hospital just days earlier.

Both Vice President Pence and Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) returned again and again to attacking the top of the other campaign’s ticket. Harris went after Trump’s efforts to stem the coronavirus, his attempts to upend President Barack Obama’s health- care program, his trade policies and his reluctance to condemn white supremacists at the first presidential debate last week.