America has lost lives, jobs and standing as a result of President Donald Trump’s “perspective and approach to China”, according to Ms Kamala Harris.
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Harris, the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate, made the claim during Wednesday’s debate with her Republican rival, Mike Pence.
She was answering the moderator’s question on how she would describe the U.S. relationship with China; whether competitors, adversaries or enemies.
Harris said Trump had a “weird obsession” with getting rid of the accomplishments of the administration of former President Barack Obama in which a Biden served as Vice President.
“For example, they (Obama and Biden) created within the White House an office that basically was responsible for monitoring pandemics, they (Trump) got rid of it.
“There was a team of disease experts that President Obama and Vice President Biden dispatched to China to monitor what is now predictable and what might happen.
“They pulled them out,” Harris stated amid interjections by Pence, who said the claims were not true.
She said no fewer than 210,000 Americans have lost their lives as result of the Trump administration’s decisions.
On the job situation, the Democratic nominee said Trump’s renegotiated trade deal with China resulted in the loss of no fewer than 300,000 manufacturing jobs.
She said American consumers were paying thousands of dollars more for goods because of “that failed war, that they called it”.
According to her, an analysis by a reputable research firm shows that leaders of former U.S. allied countries now respect President Xi Jinping of China than Trump.
“This is where we are today because of a failure of leadership y this administration,” she said.
Answering the same question earlier, Pence reiterated the Trump administration’s position that China is to blame for the pandemic.
“The president is not happy about it, and he has made that very clear and made it very clear today again.
“China and the World Health Organisation are not playing straight with the American people.
“They did not let our personnel into China to gain information on the coronavirus until the middle of February,” he said.
Pence said stood up to China from the outset of the pandemic by suspending all travels from the Asian country where the outbreak started.