Within just minutes of the vice presidential debate’s conclusion Tuesday, CNN’s Debate Night in America panel was quick to slam Governor Mike Pence and praise Senator Tim Kaine’s performance. “Well, there are two sins in communicating with people. There's small sin and there's big sin,” political commentator Van Jones explained, “And what happened was, you saw in real time essentially Pence invent a running mate and he just lied about you know what this guy stood for.” Jones said that Kaine committed the “small sin” of incessantly interrupting Pence.
Donald Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany was quick to shoot jones down, pointing to Clinton’s own history with lies. “It’s ironic to hear the Clinton campaign talk about lying when you have a candidate who has lied and changed her story on e-mails many times,” she stated before declaring Pence the winner of the night.
She went on to note the two different strategies used by the vice presidential candidates, “we saw insults on the part of Kaine, versus solutions on the part of Pence.” She drew attention to how Kaine retreated to talking about the miss universe contestant after talking about terrorism, while Pence, “Took the opportunity to name a soldier, thank him for his service and say his sacrifice has been undermined by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.”
Attack ad artist Paul Begala had his own smears for Pence, claiming he was there for only himself and his political career. “He threw Trump under the bus. This is about Mike Pence running the primaries in 2020,” he argued and Jones agreed. Begala elaborated:
He had a strategy to promote himself at the expense of Donald Trump, it was remarkable… he had this lovely parts where he kept talking about the conservative philosophy of limited government. That was great, but it was great because we never hear it from Trump. But, we hear it from Pence because he's running in 2020. I’m telling you, he’s throwing Trump under the bus. He thinks this thing’s over.
Transcript below:
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CNN
Debate Night in America
October 4, 2016
10:53:14 PM EasternJAKE TAPPER: Van Jones, I want to get your response.
VAN JONES: Well, there are two sins in communicating with people. There's small sin and there's big sin. The small sin is to interrupt all the time, and Kaine was guilty of that sin. But that's a small sin compared to the larger sin, which is to just lie. And what happened was, you saw in real time essentially Pence invent a running mate and he just lied about you know what this guy stood for. The guy that Pence has as a running mate might get a bunch of votes. That guy's just not Donald Trump, so I think the fact-checking avalanche is about to fall on the head of Mike Pence will erase his a lot of his gains tonight.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY: Let's be very clear here. Okay, it’s ironic to hear Clinton—
JONES: I can go through the lies if you want me to.
MCENANY: It’s ironic to hear the Clinton campaign talk about lying when you have a candidate who has lied and changed her story on e-mails many times. Let’s also be very clear, Mike Pence was the undisputed winner tonight and polls will 100 percent confirm that. Mark my word.
JONES: If you don’t tell the truth you can’t win any debate.
MCENANY: One of the most emblematic responses, I think tonight, is we saw insults on the part of Kaine, versus solutions on the part of Pence. When they were asked about terrorism, after saying three times that the terror threat has lessened Kaine went on to talk about miss universe, NATO comments and Putin. While you know what Pence did? He took the opportunity to name a soldier, thank him for his service and say his sacrifice has been undermined by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. That was emblematic. Had you insults versus solutions and personalizing this in a very real way.
JONES: Luckily we’ll be here a couple hours, I’ll be able to unpack everything you just said. Paul?
PAUL BEGALA: Not as a debate coach, let me talk as a strategist, these two came in with two fundamentally different strategies. Tim Kaine and he said, “I'm going to prosecute Donald Trump.” Even at the cost of his likeability. I've known him since he was the mayor of Richmond, one of the most likeable politicians I've known. Yet he did, he interrupted, he pressed, maybe too aggressively for some, but he did it because he wanted to put Trump on trial because he wants Hillary to win the election in 2016. I saw Mike Pence, who is also a very good guy, he's running in 2020.
JONES: He is.
BEGALA: He threw Trump under the bus. This is about Mike Pence running the primaries in 2020.
MCENANY: 2024, after Trump.
BEGALA: Excuse me for talking while you're interrupting.
[Laughter]
He had a strategy to promote himself at the expense of Donald Trump, it was remarkable. He went after Hillary some, I got that. He didn't defend Trump. I can even excuse that if you were really prosecuting Hillary. But instead, he had this lovely parts where he kept talking about the conservative philosophy of limited government. That was great, but it was great because we never hear it from Trump. But, we hear it from Pence because he's running in 2020. I’m telling you, he’s throwing Trump under the bus. He thinks this thing’s over.
