With Donald Trump recovering from Covid-19 and concerns over the age and shape of his Democratic rival Joe Biden, the stakes are higher than ever Wednesday evening October 7 for the first and only debate between their lieutenants, Mike Pence and Kamala Harris.
The running mates of the candidates are indeed running for the post of vice-president, called upon to replace the president of the United States in the event of death or incapacity.
"I believe that we are going to attend tonight (...) the most important debate between candidates for the vice-presidency since they started to organize one in 1976,"
Republican Senator John Barrasso told CNN.
Viewers
"will try to see who is ready to be commander-in-chief,"
he added.
Read also: US Presidential: the baptism by fire of Kamala Harris, ex-prosecutor with an iron fist
With less than four weeks to go, the pandemic has spread to the stage of the televised debate scheduled for Salt Lake City, Utah, at 3 a.m. (Paris time).
Plexiglas walls have been installed to separate the current Republican vice-president and the Democratic senator, and the desks where they will be seated have been moved nearly four meters away.
Former prosecutor accustomed to sharp indictments, Kamala Harris, 55, should not fail to pin her opponent on the management of the health crisis.
Mike Pence, 61, has been at the helm of the White House crisis unit in charge of fighting the coronavirus since February, in the country where he has killed the most in the world.
And his most famous patient, Donald Trump, 74, will be on everyone's mind.
After three days of hospitalization until Monday evening, the Republican president returned to the Oval Office on Wednesday, despite warnings about the risk of contagion.
And even if the number of people working alongside him who have tested positive continues to grow.
The message is clear: Donald Trump plays the card of the leader who defeated the virus, who now calls on his compatriots not to let the Covid-19
"dominate" them
.
A speech that Kamala Harris will certainly try to demolish on Wednesday night.
"Go tell that to the families"
of the more than 210,000 dead from the pandemic in the United States, hammered Joe Biden.
Read also: US Presidential: Mike Pence, this No. 2 thrown into the light
Donald Trump's stoppage of negotiations with the opposition on a plan to help households and small businesses hit by the pandemic should also be at the heart of the discussions.
Democrats accuse the president on this subject of abandoning his fellow citizens.
Mike Pence will have to defend the record of four years in office alongside the stormy billionaire.
And he could try to counterattack by evoking the eight years spent by Joe Biden in the White House, when he was vice-president of Barack Obama.
The Republican invited the parents of Kayla Mueller, a young aid worker who was kidnapped in Aleppo, Syria, by the jihadist group Islamic State, when Joe Biden was in power.
The body of the young woman has never been found.
Their lieutenants each complete, in their own way, the personality of the candidates for the White House.
Fervent Christian with civilized manners, Mike Pence, a lawyer by training, contrasts with the colorful personality of Donald Trump.
On the pandemic, he sticks to measured words.
But this ultra-conservative ex-governor and radio host is also a disciplined speaker.
Read also: Plexiglas between the candidates for the vice-presidency of the United States
The daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, Kamala Harris emerges as a token of vitality alongside Joe Biden, 77, who would be the oldest president to take office, in January, s' he was elected.
The first black running mate on behalf of a major party, she would become, if they win on November 3, the first female vice president of the United States.
“I can't wait to see Kamala Harris make history,”
Joe Biden tweeted.
But she had not particularly shone during the debates of the Democratic primary - apart from a coup against, precisely, Joe Biden.
Posing as a unifier of a divided America, the former vice-president of Barack Obama has been leading in any case for months in the polls. And widened the gap further after his first abrasive debate on September 29 against Donald Trump. Less than three days later, the president announced his diagnosis. Scrupulously respecting barrier gestures, Joe Biden has since been tested negative four times. In the room, those close to Donald Trump had removed their masks, despite the instructions. This time, the organizers will be strict. And added the famous plexiglass walls, even if experts already have that they will not necessarily protect Mike Pence and Kamala Harris from possible contamination with Covid-19 by particles suspended in the air.