Donald Trump is 74 years old and continues to battle a virus that has killed more than 210,000 Americans. Joe Biden is 77 years old and has had two brain aneurysms. Either man, if they win the White House in November, will be the oldest person ever to serve as president.
Which makes their health — and contingency plans if something happens to either of them — more important as a topic of national conversation than ever before. And it requires the two people who would replace them in the event of their incapacitation, namely Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, to address the issue head-on.
All of which makes how Pence and Harris responded to a question about just this topic by VP debate moderator Susan Page on Wednesday all the more disappointing.
Here’s how Page phrased the question:
“One of you will make history on January 20. You will be the vice president to the oldest president the United States has ever had. Donald Trump will be 74 years old on inauguration day, Joe Biden will be 78 years old. That already has raised concerns among some voters, concerns that have been sharpened by President Trump’s hospitalization in recent days. Vice President Pence, have you had a conversation or reached an agreement with President Trump about safeguards or procedures when it comes to the issue of presidential disability? And if not, do you think you should? You have two minutes without interruption.”
Good, right? Important!
Here’s how Pence responded:
“Well, thank you but I would like to go back because the reality is that we’re going to have a vaccine, Senator, in record time — in unheard of time in less than a year. We have five companies in phase three clinical trials and we’re right now producing tens of millions of doses.”
And, no, reader, it didn’t get better from there. Pence never even attempted to answer Page’s question. By the end of his “answer,” in fact, he was somehow talking about swine flu and how the Obama administration had “left the strategic national stockpile empty.”
Huh?
Surely, having just seen Pence swing and miss on a really important issue, Harris would want to directly answer the question, to demonstrate her (and Biden’s) commitment to transparency and strategic thinking about the future, right? RIGHT?!!?
Here’s the exchange between Page and Harris:
Page: “Senator Harris, let me ask you the same question that I asked Vice President Pence, which is, have you had a conversation or reached an agreement with Vice President Biden about safeguards or procedures when it comes to the issue of presidential disability? And if not, and if you win the election next month, do you think you should? You have two minutes uninterrupted.”
Harris: “So let me tell you, first of all, the day I got the call from Joe Biden, it was actually a Zoom call, asking me to serve with him on this ticket was probably one of the most memorable days of my life.
“I — you know, I thought about my mother, who came to the United States at the age of 19, gave birth to me at the age of 25 at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California. And the thought that I’d be sitting here right now, I know would make her proud, and she must be looking down on this.
“You know, Joe and I were raised in a very similar way. We were raised with values that are about hard work, about the value and the dignity of public service, and about the importance of fighting for the dignity of all people.”
Harris’ life story is definitely compelling! But it has absolutely nothing to do with what Page asked! Nothing at all!
The bipartisan refusal to answer even Page’s basic question on the possible transition of presidential power is an abject failure on the part of both Pence and Harris. Why? Because the presidency isn’t about one person. It’s about the country — and how we present ourselves to the world. And ensuring that the presidency remains stable no matter the health of the current president is a key part of that equation.
Sure, talking about heath is uncomfortable, but it’s also absolutely necessary when we are dealing with two septuagenarian presidential candidates with the medical histories these two have. (The New York Times’ Ben Smith wrote a very good piece recently about the necessity of asking these uncomfortable questions.)
That Pence and Harris both refused to even consider answering the question speaks to a failure to prepare for all possible outcomes in the next weeks, months and years. And that is a a fundamental failure of leadership.
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