Trump
on trial: Pence defends running mate against Kaine's attacks in
debate
Vice-presidential
candidates spar on Putin, Syria, policing as Democrat launches
assault on Trump campaign’s most outrageous statements
Vice-presidential
debate highlights: Kaine and Pence face-off
David Smith, Ben
Jacobs, Sabrina Siddiqui in Farmville, Virginia
Wednesday 5 October
2016 05.22 BST
Donald Trump was put
on trial in his absence during the vice-presidential debate as his
running mate Mike Pence was accused of trying to defend the
indefensible.
Hillary Clinton’s
running mate Tim Kaine used Tuesday night’s face-off to attack
Trump’s record throughout the contest.
Pence gave a
polished performance that could have given some hope to Republicans
but he was repeatedly forced on the back foot by a brutal catalogue
of Trump’s actions and words.
“Six times tonight
I have said to governor Pence, I can’t imagine how you defend your
running mate’s position,” Kaine said. “He is asking everybody
to vote for somebody that he cannot defend.”
Pence remained
steady under fire during the only vice-presidential debate of the
campaign, but, after repeatedly being pressed, awkwardly told Kaine:
“You whipped out that Mexican thing again,” after the Democrat
relentlessly brought up Trump’s comments, made when he announced
his candidacy, that the Mexican government was deliberately sending
rapists into the United States. “Can you defend it?” Kaine
demanded.
Kaine attacked the
Trump record on issues ranging from tax, nuclear weapons and Senator
John McCain’s war service to his description of women as “slobs”
and “pigs”, his suggestion that women who have abortions should
be punished and his questioning of Barack Obama’s birthplace.
Referring to Trump’s
past praise for dictators, Kaine said: “He’s got a personal Mount
Rushmore: Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam
Hussein.”
Mostly Pence flatly
denied that Trump had made controversial statements and, instead of
defending the candidate, resorted to the strategy of gaslighting, by
repeatedly challenging known facts to manipulate the truth.
He claimed Trump’s
past remarks were “small potatoes” compared to Clinton’s
infamous comment when she described half of Trump supporters as “a
basket full of deplorables”.
The debate in
Farmville, Virginia, with the candidates sitting at a table rather
than standing at lecterns, was not expected to have a major impact on
the presidential race, though Trump himself could not resist
providing a live commentary via Twitter. He claimed: “Mike Pence
won big. We should all be proud of Mike!”
Pence started
strongly and looked directly into the camera in a way that the
Democratic running mate Kaine did not. After a bewildering political
year that has shaken the Republican party, Pence, a 12-year
congressman and Indiana governor came over as a somewhat authentic
voice of conservatism who may be consoling and energizing for party
members who find Trump distasteful.
He attacked
Clinton’s record as secretary of state, arguing: “We see entire
portions of the world, particularly the wider Middle East, literally
spinning out of control.” He cited the crisis in Syria and a newly
emboldened Russia following a failed Clinton “reset”.
Referring to
Clinton’s use of a private email server at her home, Pence,
referencing the fact that he and Kaine both have sons who are US
marines, remarked: “If your son or my son handled classified
information the way Hillary Clinton did, they’d be court
martialed.”
Seeking to play the
role of Clinton attack dog, Kaine interrupted several times, perhaps
a little too zealously. He delivered some evidently rehearsed lines,
telling Pence: “You are Donald Trump’s apprentice,” and asking:
“Do you want a ‘you’re hired’ president in Hillary Clinton or
do you want a ‘you’re fired’ president in Donald Trump?”
Pence, who remained
composed in manner and voice, a contrast to the thin-skinned Trump,
responded: “You use that a whole lot. And I think your running mate
used a lot of pre-done lines.”
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Debating the
economy, the Republican said with assurance: “Senator, you can roll
out numbers and the sunny side, but I got to tell you, people in
Scranton know different; people in Fort Wayne, Indiana, know
different. I mean, this economy is struggling.”
Kaine, however,
gradually found his footing and scored points when he attacked Trump.
He had plenty of material to work with. He seized the opportunity to
rebroadcast, before an audience of millions, many of Trump’s most
offensive and infamous remarks about Mexicans, Muslims and women.
“There is a
fundamental respect issue here,” the Democrat said. “And I just
want to talk about the tone set from the top. Donald Trump during
this campaign has called Mexicans rapists and criminals, he’s
called women slobs, pigs, dogs, disgusting. I don’t like saying
that in front of my wife and mother.
“He attacked an
Indiana-born federal judge and said he was unqualified to hear a
federal lawsuit because his parents were Mexican. He went after John
McCain, a POW, and said he wasn’t a hero because he’d been
captured. He said African Americans are living in hell. And he
perpetrated this outrageous and bigoted lie that President Obama is
not a US citizen.”
He added: “I
cannot believe that governor Pence will defend the insult-driven
campaign that Donald Trump has run.”
On almost every
occasion, Pence offered little by way of defense. When confronted
with Trump’s comments that women should be punished for having
abortions, a statement the former reality TV star later attempted to
walk back, Pence simply offered: “Look, he’s not a polished
politician like you and Hillary Clinton.”
“Why don’t you
trust women? Kaine asked retorted.
When the discussion
turned to criminal justice reform, both candidates were in agreement
on at least one thing: the government must do more to support the
police.
But Kaine and Pence
differed dramatically on how to resolve heightened tensions between
law enforcement and communities of color after a series of
high-profile police killings of unarmed black men.
Kaine warned of the
dangers of Trump’s desire for a return to controversial stop and
frisk tactics while Pence categorically denied there was racial bias
in policing tactics. “Senator, please,” Pence said, turning to
Kaine: “Enough of this seeking every opportunity to demean law
enforcement broadly by making the accusation of implicit bias every
time tragedy occurs.”
Pence dramatically
broke from his running mate on several foreign policy issues,
criticizing Putin as a “small and bullying leader” and expressing
a willingness for the United States to engage in military action
against the Assad regime. “The United States of America should be
prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the
Assad regime to prevent them from this humanitarian crisis that is
taking place in Aleppo,” Pence said on stage.
In contrast, Trump
said in May: “I would have stayed out of Syria and wouldn’t have
fought so much . . . against Assad because I thought that was a whole
thing.” Although the Republican nominee said Assad was “bad” in
a 2015 interview with the Guardian, he has long made clear that the
United States should not intervene in Syria and that the United
States should cooperate with Russia, a close regime ally, in the
region to combat Islamic militants.
Jason Miller, senior
communications adviser to Trump, insisted last night: “Mr Trump has
been very clear where he stands where it comes to Syria and while I
appreciate your efforts to go and try to create a divide between the
two, we have a very unified ticket.”
Miller added:
“Governor Pence and Mr Trump will be right in line on Syria” and
said that there was “no daylight” between the two on the issue.
David Bossie,
Trump’s deputy campaign manager, insisted after the debate that “he
didn’t hear that specific line” when asked about Pence’s
comments about Putin. He also said he wasn’t sure if Trump agreed
with his running mate on Syria. “I am going to have to talk to Mr
Trump about that,” Bossie told the Guardian.
Following the
debate, moderated by Elaine Quijano of CBS News in Longwood
University’s basketball arena, Clinton campaign aides told
reporters that Pence had arrived with a game plan to present a more
reasonable posture and to avoid defending Trump at all costs.
“Mike Pence could
have given the performance of his life tonight and it wouldn’t have
made a dime’s worth a difference in terms of convincing the public
that Donald Trump is temperamentally fit to be president,” Brian
Fallon, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said in the spin room.
Clinton campaign
manager Robby Mook said Pence essentially “threw Donald Trump under
the bus” on several policy issues, including US-Russia relations
and the Syrian civil war.
“That’s
disturbing,” Mook said. “These two people have to work as a unit.
That clearly was not on display here tonight.”
John Brabender, an
adviser to the Pence campaign, said: “I thought from the opening
bell, Pence looked strong and likable and articulated the issues
extremely well and won the debate going away.”
He added: “More
importantly did probably the best job between the two debates of
somebody showing both a vision for Trump and laying out the case
against Hillary Clinton. I thought he did a better job than Donald
Trump did.”
.webp)
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