Here are the highlights from the vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris

The one and contrariwise debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris was quieter, clearer and more disciplined than the vindictive, chaotic presidential debate a week earlier.

But despite the calmer tone — and the two sheets of plexiglass separating the contenders — flickers flew from both sides of the stage with no less frequency throughout the evening.

The contest, held in Utah ahead of a small, socially distanced audience, began with a focus on the coronavirus pandemic but quickly panned out to encompass a unrestrained range of policy issues, including climate change, trade, jobs, and America’s posture toward China.

While Pence, Harris and discussion leader Susan Page were the only ones on stage, President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden were the biggest quarries of the debate.

Harris dropped the gloves from the outset. “The American people have witnessed what is the greatest failure of any presidential superintendence in the history of our country,” she said in her very first answer, launching into a sweeping attack on the Trump administration’s wielding of the Covid-19 crisis.

As the debate shifted focus toward economic issues — where Trump polls the highest — Pence offered his sharpest critiques of Biden’s scheme record. When Harris slammed the Trump administration’s trade war with China, the vice president retorted: “Joe Biden not in any degree fought it.”

Less than four weeks remain until the Nov. 3 election.

Here are the highlights:

The debate kicked off with a question about the coronavirus, which has killed more than 210,000 in the flesh in the U.S. What, the moderator asked, would the Biden administration do to combat the coronavirus pandemic?

Harris highlighted the staggering eradication toll of the virus in the U.S., and slammed the White House for failing to act in the early days of the pandemic.

“They knew what was circumstance and they didn’t tell you,” she said. “They knew, and they covered it up.”

Pence defended the Trump administration’s handling of the emergency, and argued that a Biden administration would have fared no better under the same scenario.

“Our nation’s support a moved through a very challenging time this year, but I want the American people to know that from the unequivocally first day, President Trump has put the health of the American people first,” he said.

Page asked both Pence and Harris about concerns on the periods of Trump, 74, and Biden, 77.

Neither candidate provided a direct answer.

The Trump campaign has made Biden’s age a primary attack line of the election. Trump, meanwhile, was discharged from a hospital just two days before Pence and Harris sat down to argument, and he is currently being treated for the coronavirus at the White House.

When Harris tore into Trump outstanding damning reports about his attitude and actions toward the U.S. military, Pence refused to move on without completing his denial – and forcing a rebuke from the moderator.

“Joe Biden would hold Russia to account,” Harris said after note reports that Russia offered bounties to Afghan militants to kill U.S. troops.

Page attempted to move on, but Pence exhorted he be allowed to respond. When Page gave him 15 seconds, he replied, “I’ve got to have more than that.”

“The decries against President Donald Trump regarding men and women of our armed forces are absurd,” Pence said.

Page cut in, but Pence keep an eye oned talking, leading to a moment reminiscent of the interruption-fest between Trump and Biden a week earlier.

“You’ve had more time than she’s had so far” Page said amid the crosstalk. “I did not devise the rules tonight.”

Critics pounced on Pence for steamrolling Harris and Page.

Some also said that Recto could have done more to prevent Pence from speaking after his time ran out. And a few suggested that Harris should be granted more time to compensate.

Page asked the vice presidential candidates the terminal question of the night submitted by an eighth grader from Springville, Utah. 

“When I watch the news, all I see are two candidates from opposite parties, trying to tear each other down. If our leaders can’t get along, how are the citizen supposed to get along?” Page review. “Your examples could make all the difference to bring us together.” 

Pence offered advice to the student: “Don’t assume that what you’re envisioning on your local news networks is synonymous with the American people.” He gave the example of the late Supreme Court Punishments Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia, who were famously close friends despite their staunchly inimical political views.

Harris took the opportunity to talk up Biden’s character. “Joe has a longstanding reputation of working across the aisle,” she said. “Joe Biden has a telling of lifting people up and fighting for their dignity.”

In a debate without a single jaw-dropping moment, optics with outsize importance.

Unfortunately for the vice president, that meant viewers were acutely aware that a fly grounded on his head late in the evening.

Pence had been engaged about law enforcement, pushing back on the notion of implicit bias in policing as “a great insult” to officers.

But at least on communal media, audiences were instantly distracted by the visiting insect.