10:10 p.m.
Vice President Mike Pence says hesitation on behalf of the Obama administration is to blame for the death
of a humanitarian worker killed and abused by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Relatives of Kayla Mueller were among Pence’s guests at Wednesday night’s debate with California Sen.
Kamala Harris in Salt Lake City.
During the debate, Pence said that, when Joe Biden was vice president, the Obama administration
"hesitated" in moving on al-Baghdadi, and when forces finally went in, Mueller had been moved
to another location.
Mueller was kidnapped and held for 18 months before her death was announced in early 2015.
Pence said Mueller’s family believes that, if President Donald Trump had been in office, "Kayla
would be alive today." Al-Baghdadi was killed during a special forces raid in Syria in 2019.
Speaking to Mueller’s family, Harris said, "What happened to her was awful and it should have never
happened."
___
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE:
President Donald Trump is recovering from the coronavirus at the White House. Democrat Joe Biden is
holding two virtual fundraisers. The candidates’ running mates, meanwhile, met in a vice presidential
debate Wednesday night in Salt Lake City.
Read more:
— Pence-Harris debate to unfold as Trump recovers from virus
— Viewer’s Guide: Virus response on stage with Pence, Harris
— Trump, out of sight, tweets up storm, says he ‘feels great’
___
HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
9:55 p.m.
The vice presidential debate is much more cordial than last week’s raucous presidential debate with
frequent interruptions and outbursts.
Democrat Kamala Harris acknowledged Vice President Mike Pence’s phone call to her the day she accepted
the Democratic vice presidential nomination, while Pence acknowledged the well wishes from his
Democratic rivals toward President Donald Trump after the president was diagnosed with COVID-19 last
week.
Harris is the first Black woman on a major party ticket. Pence congratulated her Wednesday night on her
historic nomination.
___
9:50 p.m.
California Sen. Kamala Harris is hammering Vice President Mike Pence over health care, saying that the
Trump administration is "coming for you" if you have a preexisting condition.
Citing the Trump administration’s support for a challenge to the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme
Court, Harris says during Wednesday night’s vice presidential debate that the Trump administration is
"coming for you" if you have a preexisting condition, if you "love someone who has a
preexisting condition" or if you are younger than 26 years old and covered by their parents’ health
care plan.
In response, Pence says that "Obamacare was a disaster" and that he and Trump have a plan to
cover people with preexisting conditions, though the Trump administration hasn’t yet released such a
plan.
___
9:45 p.m.
California Sen. Kamala Harris says a lack of information on President Donald Trump’s outstanding debts
raises concerns about possible motives for his decisions in the nation’s top office.
The Democratic vice presidential nominee said Wednesday during a candidate debate in Salt Lake City that
"it’d be really good to know who the president of the United States, the commander and chief, owes
money to."
Harris referenced reporting by The New York Times showing Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016
and 2017 and is carrying a total of $421 million in loans and debt. Vice President Mike Pence shook his
head as she spoke.
Trump has fiercely guarded his tax filings and is the only president in modern times not to make them
public.
Harris pivoted to taxes during a question on whether the American people deserved to have information on
their president’s health, to which she and Pence both answered in the affirmative.
___
9:40 p.m.
Neither Vice President Mike Pence nor Sen. Kamala Harris is acknowledging whether they have had a
conversation with their party’s presidential nominee about safeguards or procedures should either man
become disabled.
President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden would be the oldest president ever, if elected.
Pence instead used his two minutes to attack Harris’ doubt in Trump’s timeframe for a coronavirus
vaccine. His answer came in part off Trump’s recent coronavirus diagnosis.
For her part, Harris used her time to discuss her late mother’s status as an immigrant and her unlikely
path to the Democratic ticket.
Though neither seem to suggest it’s important to discuss conversations with their running mates, both
seem to agree it’s important for the American people to have details of the president’s health.
___
9:35 p.m.
Sen. Kamala Harris is leaving it as an open question whether she would take a COVID-19 vaccine if one is
approved while President Donald Trump is in office.
The topic came up early in Wednesday’s vice presidential debate.
Harris was asked if Americans should take the vaccine and if she would. Harris says that if doctors
"tells us that we should take it, I’ll be the first in line to take it, absolutely. But if Donald
Trump tells us that we should take it, I’m not taking it."
Vice President Mike Pence says there will be a vaccine produced in record time. He says, "I just ask
you, stop playing politics with people’s lives."
He says that undermining confidence in a vaccine is unacceptable.
Former Food and Drug Administration officials have warned that public perception that a vaccine being
rushed out for political reasons could derail efforts to vaccinate millions of Americans.
___
9:20 p.m.
The coronavirus pandemic was the first topic at the vice presidential debate.
In Salt Lake City on Wednesday, separated from Vice President Mike Pence by plexiglass barriers,
California Sen. Kamala Harris called the Trump administration’s response to the growing pandemic
"the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country."
Speaking directly to the camera, as Democratic nominee Joe Biden did in his first debate with President
Donald Trump, Harris said, "They knew what was happening, and they didn’t tell you."
In response, Vice President Mike Pence commended Trump’s decision to shut off travel from China, saying
the decision "bought us invaluable time" to coordinate the country’s response to the pandemic.
But Trump’s move only cut off some travel from China, and tens of thousands were still allowed to pour
into the country.
More than 210,000 Americans have died during the pandemic. Trump is recovering at the White House from
his own infection.
___
9 p.m.
Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Kamala Harris are facing off in their only vice presidential debate.
The candidates are separated by plexiglass barriers in an auditorium where any guest who refuses to wear
a face mask will be removed.
Wednesday’s prime-time meeting is a chance for voters to decide whether Pence or Harris is ready to
assume the duties of the presidency. It’s hardly a theoretical question: President Donald Trump is 74
and recovering from the coronavirus, and Joe Biden is 77.
Harris is the first Black woman to stand on a vice presidential debate stage. The night offers her a
prime opportunity to energize would-be voters who have shown only modest excitement about Biden.
Pence is looking to boost the Republican ticket, which is trailing in polls.
___
7:10 p.m.
Republican Mike Pence will press the Trump campaign’s "law and order" message at the vice
presidential debate against Democrat Kamala Harris.
Pence’s guests in the debate hall Wednesday night will include Ann Marie Dorn, the widow of retired St.
Louis police captain David Dorn, who was shot to death on June 2 after a violent night of protests.
President Donald Trump and his campaign have seized on the scattered violence that has broken out amid
otherwise largely peaceful protests demanding racial justice. Trump has wrongly claimed that such
violence has been condoned by his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, and has warned it will continue if Biden
wins in November.
Ann Marie Dorn also spoke at the Republican National Convention.
Pence will also be joined by the parents of Kayla Mueller, a humanitarian aid worker who was taken
captive and killed by Islamic State militants.
___
7 p.m.
Two Utah women will attend Wednesday’s vice presidential debate in Salt Lake City as guests of Democrat
Kamala Harris.
Angela Romero is a state representative who also works in local government in Salt Lake City, overseeing
the Division for Youth and Family programs. The campaign says Romero is focused on supporting families
and local businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Deborah Gatrell is a veteran and teacher who is running for a seat on the Salt Lake County Council. She
is a Blackhawk pilot who served in the Utah National Guard and was deployed to the Middle East.
The campaign says the two women represent the hard-working Americans that a Joe Biden-Kamala Harris
administration would fight for.
___
5:50 p.m.
President Donald Trump’s campaign is dialing back on advertising in Midwestern states that secured his
first term in office.
Data from the ad tracking firm Kantar/CMAG shows Trump’s campaign has canceled about $3.3 million in
advertising planned for Iowa and Ohio this week. But details provided from Democratic advertising
trackers reveal the phenomenon is more widespread.
The data shows Trump is running $1.3 million in advertising this week in Michigan, where Democratic
presidential nominee Joe Biden is spending $2.9 million. In Wisconsin, Trump is spending $229,000
compared to Biden’s $2.5 million. And in Minnesota, a longtime Democratic stronghold where Trump hoped
to make inroads, Biden is outspending him $1 million to Trump’s $289,000 this week.
The ad decisions by Trump’s campaign are puzzling.
He amassed a massive campaign bank account after his election, but Biden has outraised him in recent
months. Many Republican donors have been alarmed by the campaign’s exorbitant spending on things
unrelated to winning, including lavish payments to campaign consultants and surrogates.
___
3:45 p.m.
President Donald Trump has returned to the Oval Office for the first time since he was diagnosed and
hospitalized with COVID-19.
Spokesperson Brian Morgenstern confirmed that the president returned to the Oval Office on Wednesday. He
has been convalescing in the White House residence since he returned from a three-night hospital stay on
Monday evening.
Trump is likely still contagious with the virus.
A Marine was posted outside the West Wing, signifying the president was in the Oval Office.
White House officials say they have put additional safeguards in place to protect staff who may interact
with the president, including requiring full personal protective equipment.
Morgenstern says Trump is being briefed on stimulus talks and a potentially devastating hurricane heading
toward the Gulf Coast.
___
2:30 p.m.
Vice President Mike Pence will be joined in the debate hall by several special guests, including the
parents of Kayla Mueller, the humanitarian aid worker who was killed by Islamic State militants.
Their presence Wednesday night is intended to highlight action taken by President Donald Trump, including
the killing of the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in contrast to the approach taken by the Obama
administration, which Mueller’s parents have criticized.
Carl and Marsha Mueller were featured in Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this year and spoke
at the Republican National convention. In their speech, they asserted that, had Trump "been
president when Kayla was captured, she would be here today."
The 26-year-old Mueller was taken captive in August 2013 after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital
in Aleppo, Syria.
The debate comes the same day that two Islamic State militants — dubbed part of the "the
Beatles" because of their British accents —- were brought from Britain to the U.S. to face charges
in connection with the deaths of American hostages, including Kayla Mueller.
___
10:45 a.m.
Kamala Harris has again tested negative for the coronavirus.
The campaign reported her results on Wednesday, less than 12 hours before she is scheduled to debate Vice
President Mike Pence. She took the test Tuesday.
Pence also tested negative on Tuesday, according to the White House.
Harris and Pence will appear on stage at the University of Utah for a 90-minute debate. Both candidates
will have plexiglass around them as an additional precaution. That was requested by the Biden-Harris
campaign, and Pence’s team objected.
Harris also tested negative for the virus on Monday.
