The vice presidential candidates, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Mike Pence, met on Wednesday for the only time in a meeting much more civilized than the first presidential debate.
In contrast to his predecessor Chris Wallace, who failed to stop the first interruptions in the first debate for the presidency, the moderator
Susan Page, the Washington, DC bureau chief for USA Today, was praised on social media for her control over the debate.
[Follow our coverage of the 2020 presidential elections]
"Susan Page is doing a much better job in impartiality and control than the other man who moderated the last debate. Chris Wallace was neither impartial nor in charge," said a Twitter user, almost at the beginning of the meeting.
Page, 69, has been a White House correspondent for the newspaper Usa Today since 1995 and has interviewed nine presidents;
six of them were still in office when he did.
She is the first reporter selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates as the main moderator.
Susan Page during the vice-presidential debate in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 7, 2020.AP / AP
The journalist warned before the meeting that she
would strictly enforce the rules of the game
set by the debate commission.
But hours later, she was disappointed.
"I didn't get answers to all the questions I was hoping for," Page told Nicole Carroll, the editor-in-chief of Usa Today, after the debate.
"From the beginning, it was clear that it required
more aggressive restraint
than I had planned," he added.
[Mike Pence and Kamala Harris: Opposites Vying for the US Vice Presidency]
On social media such as Twitter, viewers praised the journalist for her handling of Kamala Harris and Mike Pence's engagement time, and her control of an environment of respect.
According to an analysis by CNN, both candidates had an
almost identical speaking time.
The moderator
began the debate by pleading with the contestants to watch their manners
, a not-too-subtle nod to President Trump's behavior toward Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the chaotic debate moderated by Chris Wallace, the Fox News host.
"They will have two minutes to respond without being interrupted by me or the other candidate," Page said at the beginning of the event.
"We want a debate that is lively. But
Americans also deserve a discussion that is civilized
. These are turbulent times, but we can and will have a respectful exchange. Let's start with
the
ongoing
pandemic
that has cost our country so much."
The truths, the falsehoods and the deceptive in the debate of the vice presidential candidates
Oct. 8, 202001: 06
Once the debate entered,
Page
had to intervene
several times to ask Harris or Pence to end their speeches, and thus allow the event to continue.
The
vice president surpassed the senator in the number of interruptions
, something for which some users did criticize Page.
According to CBS News, Pence interrupted Harris 10 times, while she only interrupted him five times.
In addition, Susan Page was praised for her questions but
criticized for not following up.
[This was the first debate between Trump and Biden: a chaotic encounter in which everyone lost]
"One of you will make history on January 20," said Susan Page, "will be the oldest vice president of the president the United States has ever had."
Page asked Pence, and then Harris, if they had spoken to their running mates about "the issue of presidential disability."
Both candidates dodged the issue, which will not appear again on a public stage like this.
Donald Trump is 74 years old and still sick with COVID-19, while Joe Biden is 77 years old.
With information from USA TODAY, CNN, CBS News.
