Neither Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) nor moderator Susan Page uttered the words “impeach” or “impeachment” during Wednesday’s vice presidential debate.
Page framed President Donald Trump as unwilling to commit to a “peaceful transfer of power” in a question she posed to Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence replied by highlighting Democrats’ impeachment pushes against Trump as part of a broader refusal to accept the outcome of 2016’s presidential election:
When you talk about accepting the outcome of the election, I must tell you, senator, your party has spent the last three and a half years trying to overturn the results of the last election. It’s amazing.
When Joe Biden was vice president of the United States, the FBI actually spied on President Trump and my campaign. There were documents released this week that the CIA actually made a referral to the FBI documenting that those allegations were coming from the Hillary Clinton campaign, and of course, we’ve all seen the avalanche, what you put the country through for the better part of three years until it was found that there was no obstruction, no collusion, case closed.
And then, Senator Harris, you and your colleagues in the Congress [were] trying to impeach the President of the United States over a phone call. And now, [failed Democrat presidential candidate] Hillary Clinton actually said to Joe Biden that, in her words, under no circumstances should he concede the election.
The first presidential debate, moderated by Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace, similarly omitted any mention of impeachment aside from Trump’s references to it.