Booker calls Pence ‘a formidable debater’ ahead of VP debate

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) acknowledged on Wednesday that Vice President Pence is a “formidable debater” and that the upcoming vice presidential debate between Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) would be a “challenge.”

“We know that Vice President Pence is a formidable debater and we know that tonight is a challenge,” Booker said on a conference call with reporters hosted by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign. 

Symone Sanders, a senior adviser to Biden’s campaign, echoed Booker’s remarks, saying that Harris’s team is not underestimating the vice president’s debate skills. 

“Tonight we do expect Mike Pence to have a good debate,” Sanders said. “He has a history of being a successful debater, he was a talk show host. So we are not coming in underestimating him.”

The remarks came hours before Pence and Harris meet face-to-face in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the only vice presidential debate of the 2020 campaign. 

Biden campaign officials said Wednesday that Harris would focus on speaking directly to voters about the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and Pence’s role as chairman of the federal coronavirus task force. 

Harris will face something of a balancing act during the debate on Wednesday night, however, given President Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis last week, which led to him spending three days in the hospital. 

Booker suggested that Harris would not pull any punches when it comes to how Trump and Pence have handled the coronavirus pandemic, but said that she would make it “about the mission and not the person.”

“I know that we have a difficult debater in Mike Pence, but one of the things I love about Kamala is watching her under attack,” Booker said. “She has this powerful way of making it about the mission and not the person.”