October 5, 2016 | No Comments
FARMVILLE, Va. — Republicans knocked Tim Kaine’s interruptions. Democrats said Mike Pence barely lifted a finger in defense of Donald Trump. And the two campaigns prepared for the next major pivot point in the race: Sunday’s rematch between Trump and Hillary Clinton.
The post-debate spin from the Clinton and Trump campaigns made it abundantly clear: Neither Kaine nor Pence drew blood in the occasionally tense but mostly low-wattage 90-minute showdown.
“Pence wasn’t able to move the needle,” said Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). “That’s a victory on Tim Kaine’s part.”
Kaine “immediately seemed off his game and felt the need to immediately begin interrupting and try to take over the debate and he failed at every level of that,” said Nick Ayers, a top Pence aide. “I don’t know what it was, because historically he’s performed very well.”
While Pence’s soothing, steady demeanor seemed to buck up Republicans who had endured a disastrous week of Trump’s antics, the VP nominee failed to land a memorable blow against Kaine or Clinton, and openly struggled to defend Trump’s positions and rhetoric by changing the subject. There was a demonstrable discrepancy between Pence’s harsh rhetoric about Russia and Vladimir Putin and Trump’s lavishing praise of the strongman.
And though Kaine came off as overeager and testy in his frequent disruptions of both moderator Elaine Quijano and Pence, Republicans were left with little to latch onto other than his conspicuous disruptions.
“All he did was interrupt both Gov. Pence and the female moderator,” said Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager. Referring to Elaine Quijano, who is of Filipino descent, Conway added: “I’m married to an Asian man, I was really excited to have the first Asian-American female moderator tonight, I thought it was incredibly unfortunate to have him constantly interrupting her.”
It was clear listening to Democrats afterward that they knew Kaine was unable to notch a second definitive debate win for their ticket. They explained that Kaine was intent on challenging Pence, to take him out of his comfort zone and force him to defend Trump.
“That was his job. His job was to hold Mike Pence accountable,” said Karen Finney, Kaine’s chief spokeswoman. “That’s what you’re supposed to do at the VP debate … if he hadn’t done that, the question you all would be asking me is: ‘Why didn’t he do that?’”
Kaine’s strategy was telegraphed and relentless. He read back Trump quotes to Pence, whether it was praising Putin, criticizing Mexican immigrants or using harsh language in describing women’s personal appearances.
Pence often just shook his head and uttered, “nonsense.” Republicans said that was about all he could do given Kaine’s tactics.
“I have to say that I like Tim Kaine, but Tim Kaine’s rattling off of one example after another of some statement he says Donald Trump made often were inaccurate [and] every time were virtually distorted with no context,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). “These are distortions of his words.”
Still, the debate was waged on Democratic terms, even if it made for uncomfortable viewing given Kaine’s uncharacteristically aggressive demeanor. Trump’s name was uttered more than 30 times more than Clinton’s, according to a rough transcript, and many of those instances were specific attacks waged by Kaine intended to either draw out a defense from Pence — or go unanswered.
“Six times tonight I have said to Gov. Pence: I can’t imagine how you can defend your running mate’s position on one issue after the next. And in all six cases he’s refused,” Kaine said at one point.
“Don’t put words in my mouth,” Pence responded.
Kaine tried to leave the impression that Pence wanted to talk about anything other than Trump’s utterances. But Pence kept his cool, even as he spent the night dodging Kaine’s jabs.
Pence spoke passionately about his faith and pushed the same type of conservative economic plans that many Republicans have been clamoring for from Trump. And he spoke in a soothing manner that provided a stark contrast to Kaine’s more strained denunciations of Trump and attempts to provoke a response.
Democrats including Finney speculated that Pence was really looking out for his own political ambitions, specifically a potential White House bid of his own in 2020. But Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta even admitted that Pence was “smooth” — not a word anyone was applying to Kaine.
“Both men did a good job in terms of expressing their own views. But there was one difference: Tim Kaine fully defended Hillary Clinton throughout the debate … I just didn’t hear that from Pence,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). Pence “was articulate, [and] while he spoke from the heart, I believe, he had a high bar and that was to change the trajectory of the last week. That didn’t happen.”
Matthew Nussbaum and Shane Goldmacher contributed to this report.