Letters to the Editor: There was nothing racist about Kamala Harris and Mike Pence's debate

To the editor: For columnist Erika D. Smith to describe Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris as a "hard-charging former prosecutor" and Vice President Mike Pence as an "over-confident, condescending, weak and scared white man," and then go on to base a whole article on these characterizations, strikes me as a lazy effort to come up with an excuse for something to write about.

Pitting black against white is incendiary, and I wish writers would stop doing it. I watched the debate, and the furthest thing from my mind was that what I was seeing was in some way racist.

I guess you see what you want to see.

Alan Booth, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Wow, "monster"?

While the president of the United States had nothing negative to say about the people who allegedly plotted to kidnap the governor of Michigan, he took the time to call Fox News and say Harris was a "monster."

Perhaps it would be more illuminating to consider the behavior of the most powerful person in the land putting less powerful people at risk for exposure to a deadly disease. Then we can pin the tail on the real monster.

Scott Hamre, Cherry Valley, Calif.

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To the editor: Trump refuses to participate in a virtual debate because it would be a "waste of time." Given his disastrous mishandling of the pandemic, doing things online that we would prefer to do in person has become a reality for every American.

Trump's dismissal is an insult to everyone who has, over the past seven months, been able only to virtually celebrate a birthday or a wedding, to visit a grandparent, to attend school, or most tragically of all to see a dying loved one for the last time.

Charles Barquist, Beverly Hills

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To the editor: I find it absurd that in one of the most important elections of the current era, there is not enough time in the debates to answer the most important questions that will affect the lives of Americans for the next four years or even a lifetime.

Furthermore, it is a debate, so the candidates are supposed to do just that.

This idea of "proper etiquette" or "civility," where the candidates must simply answer the moderator's question while the other candidate has to stay silent, is absurd and unnatural. If the candidates cannot interject on facts that are not correct, then you can do candidate interviews instead.

Is Trump supposed to stay silent when former Vice President Joe Biden says he has done nothing in the last four years? Does Harris have to stay silent when Pence attacks her?

Michele Castagnetti, Los Angeles

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.