First it was between the US President Donald Trump and the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden but then it quickly shifted to the vice president Mike Pence and Joe Biden’s run mate Kamala Harris over who can lead the country to it’s glory and restore the many lost jobs especially while the country is currently dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic on the large scale.

Age and other underlying health issues are some of the risk factors of COVID-19 and with Donald Trump’s testing positive to the disease at 74 while Joe Biden himself is 77, any of them that win this November will be the oldest US president to be sworn into office.

But Wednesday’s confrontation between Vice President Mike Pence and Joe Biden’s run mate Kamala Harris seemed unlikely to alter the dynamics of a race that opinion polls show Biden is winning with less than four weeks to the Nov. 3 election, as both candidates evaded certain questions, stuck to talking points and avoided major gaffes.

Harris, the California U.S. senator and former state attorney general, immediately went after Trump’s record on the pandemic that has claimed 210,000 American lives and devastated the economy.

“The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country,” Harris said as the debate began at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

In response to her, Pence took after China for the pandemic and stated that the current administration had made a lot of efforts to battle the disease which also includes the Trump’s late January restriction to traveling to or from the pandemic’s epicenter in China.

“I want the American people to know that from the very first day, President Donald Trump has put the health of America first,” he said. “China is to blame for the coronavirus, and President Trump is not happy about it,” he added.

Separating them were plexiglass shields and they stood 12 feet from one another which was the suggestion of Kamala Harris due to the results of the US president although both Pence and Harris tested negative on Tuesday and the US health guideline stated that anyone exposed to the disease should self isolate irrespective of their test results.

Harris, who made her own unsuccessful run for the presidency, faced enormous pressure as she took the biggest political stage of her life. On Wednesday, she largely succeeded at fulfilling the running mate’s traditional attack role.

Pence delivered the kind of calm, reasoned points that the combative Trump rarely offers, but the president’s propensity for grabbing headlines is likely to overshadow his second-in-command’s performance almost immediately.

Reports about the president’s health states that he’s doing fine and there had been no complications whatsoever as he also prepares for his second (of three) round of debate with Joe Biden later on this month.