In what must be a clear relief to an embattled Donald Trump, his running mate Mike Pence offered a refreshing contrast in poise and temperament as he prevailed over his Democratic counterpart Tim Kaine in the only vice-presidential debate of this election season, held in Virginia on Tuesday night.
After Trump lost out to Hillary Clinton in the opening presidential debate last week, triggering a setback in polls, Pence held his own as he calmly dealt with a barrage of attacks from Senator Kaine directed at Trump’s “insult-driven” campaign, repeatedly interrupting the Indiana Governor from having his say. A CNN snap poll declared Pence the winner (48-42%)
Although Pence put up a somewhat muted defence of Trump in the face of the repetitious lines of attack from Kaine, he ably prosecuted the case against Clinton over her “weak and feckless foreign policy” as Secretary of State during President Barack Obama’s first term, her controversial email saga and the allegations against the Clinton Foundation.
Kaine kept firing away at Trump’s misdemeanours and a penchant for controversies all through his campaign, telling Pence: “I can’t imagine how you can defend the insult-driven, selfish, me-first style of Donald Trump.” That prompted Pence to hit back at Clinton over her own “insult-filled” lines, deriding people supporting Trump as “a basket of deplorables”.
When Kaine slammed Trump over his praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin, attributing it to “business dealings with Russian oligarchs who are very connected to Putin”, Pence sought to counter-punch Clinton by referring to her own failed push for a reset of ties with Moscow.
Appearing to break away from Trump’s flattering comments for Putin, Pence, known to be a strong conservative with only animosity for Russia, went on to paint him as a “small and bullying leader” who was now dictating terms to the United States in Syria.
Hinting at one point that Trump’s description of Putin as a strong leader was only in the context of underscoring the comparative weakness of Obama’s leadership, Pence said: “The greatest nation on earth (US) just withdraws from talks about a ceasefire, while Vladimir Putin puts a missile defense system in Syria.”
As Kaine kept attacking Trump for his comments against Mexicans, Muslims and women, Pence at one point acidly commented: “look, he’s not a polished politician like you and Hillary Clinton….You know, things don’t always come out exactly the way he means them.” As for the anti-Mexican rhetoric, Pence said Trump’s comments were against criminal aliens perpetrating violence and taking American lives, adding: “He also said many of them are good people. You keep leaving that out of your quote.”
On the immigration issue, specifically deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, Pence said the plan outlined by Trump will proceed according to a set of priorities. The first one will be to remove criminal aliens. It will then deal with people who have overstayed their visas. “Then we’ll deal with those that remain,” he said, signalling that it would not be a case of dramatic deportations of all illegal immigrants, estimated to be over 11 million.
On Trump’s controversial tax avoidance for 18 years after posting a loss of $916 million in 1995, Pence sought to defend the billionaire businessman’s stance, asserting that he had “used the tax code just the way it’s supposed to be used, and he did it brilliantly”. When Kaine kept up the attack on the issue, he asked the Senator: “Do you not take deductionsIJ”
“With two relatively unknown politicians taking the stage, those watching seemed more impressed by Pence than Kaine,” said a CNN-ORC poll, noting that two-thirds of debate-watchers finding his performance was better than what they had expected. In contrast, 43 per cent said Kaine’s performance was worse than expected.