At Wednesday’s debate, Vice President Mike Pence tried to throw off criticism from Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) about the administration’s failures on COVID-19 by claiming that she lacks faith in the American people to make decisions for themselves about public health.

Commenters on social media were not impressed with Pence’s deflection.

Pence positions the admin’s lax attitude on pandemic restrictions as “respecting the American people.”

Harris counters: “Let’s talk about respecting the American people. You respect the American people when you tell them the truth.”

— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) October 8, 2020

Kamala: You failed.

Pence: Stop attacking America.

— Jesse Lee (@JesseCharlesLee) October 8, 2020

Pence trying to shift the blame for his failed effort to "the American people."

— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) October 8, 2020

The chutzpah of Pence saying "stop playing politics with people's lives" is off the charts. Trump sacrificed tens of thousands of American lives to his political ambitions.

— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) October 8, 2020

Call me crazy, but I prefer my candidates with life behind their eyes and a beating human heart. Kamala cares far more for “the American people” than Pence ever could. #VPDebate pic.twitter.com/kOlBtRxWbZ

— Ashley Spencer (@AshleyySpencer) October 8, 2020

It's so gross to see Mike Pence praise the "sacrifices" of the American people.

His administration has chosen to sacrifice 200,000 Americans on the altar of Wall Street's economy, in order to try to preserve Donald Trump's approval ratings.#VPDebate2020

— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) October 8, 2020

Pence’s attempt to pretend Harris’s criticism of the administration is about denigrating “the American people” is totally consistent with how they’ve handled the virus — put the burden of mitigation on each person.

— Irin Carmon (@irin) October 8, 2020

So Pence was asked about his failures re: COVID and his answer is he thinks the American people did a good job? Yeah, I did do a good job protecting myself. But it wasn't my job to protect the whole country, it was his.

— Ashley Nicole Black (@ashleyn1cole) October 8, 2020

pence is making it seem like listening to experts is not trusting american people to do the right thing on their own. insanely individualistic false dichotomy especially when it demonstrably has failed.

— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) October 8, 2020

Pence is carrying on about how the American people made sacrifices so as not to spread the rona.

You mean these American people? #VPDebate pic.twitter.com/GnYnXgljid

— Imani Gandy ☄️🌎🔥 (@AngryBlackLady) October 8, 2020

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