The vice presidential debate was on this week, did you watch? If so, what were your thoughts? Who won? Who lost?<\/p>\n
For me, I thought the clear winner was Trump\u2019s guy, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. He was calm, cool and collected during the debate, adroitly deflecting a lot of the bait that his opponent, Hillary’s minion, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine was throwing his way.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s face facts, Trump has said a lot of inflammatory things while on the campaign trail and Pence had the unenviable job of defending and\/or explaining those comments to the American people. Sen. Kaine made it a point to bring up some of Trump’s foot-in-mouth statements over and over to throw Pence off guard.<\/p>\n
One such remark was with respect to Trump\u2019s seemingly odd praise<\/a> of Russian president Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n During one exchange, Sen. Kaine said that Trump \u201cloves dictators\u201d and has a \u201cpersonal Mount Rushmore\u201d that includes Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Gadhafi, Saddam Hussein and that Trump believes that \u201cthat the world will be safer if more nations have nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n To which Gov. Pence retorted, \u201cDid you work on that one a long time? Because that had a lot of really creative lines in it.\u201d<\/p>\n I thought that was a clever comeback by Pence. Instead of getting caught up in addressing the inanity of Kaine\u2019s accusations, Pence totally undermined it by pointing out how rehearsed it sounded. It was an effective blow because it was undoubtedly a canned attack that Kaine had worked on during the debate prep.<\/p>\n So, Pence was the winner. Not only because he defended his running mate but he also managed to land a few jabs of his own on Hillary. Pence brought up Hillary\u2019s use of a private email server, her mishandling of classified information and the pay for play operations of the Clinton Foundation.<\/p>\n Probably my favorite exchange is when Pence brought up how Hillary was treated with kid gloves by the FBI during its investigation of her hacked server that contained classified information.<\/p>\n \u201cIf your son or my son handled classified information the way Hillary Clinton did…they’d be court-martialed,\u201d said Pence.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is absolutely false and you know that,\u201d exclaimed Kaine, in a moment of desperation.<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely true,\u201d said Pence.<\/p>\n And, it is true. Just ask Kristian Saucier of Arlington, Vermont,<\/a> who was sentenced to a year in prison for taking six photos of a nuclear submarine back in 2009, when he was 22-year-old machinist working on board. Proud of his contributions, Saucier wanted to share the pics with friends, family\u00a0(and his future children) back home. Saucier tried to use the \u201cHillary Clinton\u201d defense in court. But lo and behold, it didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n As it relates specifically to gun rights, Kaine tried to pull a fast one on the audience and viewers, suggesting that he was an advocate for one\u2019s right to keep and bear arms.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a gun-owner,\u201d said Sen. Kaine. \u201cI\u2019m a strong Second Amendment supporter. But I’ve got a lot of scar tissue, because when I was governor of Virginia, there was a horrible shooting at Virginia Tech, and we learned that through that painful situation that gaps in the background record check system should have been closed and it could have prevented that crime, and so we’re going to work to do things like close background record checks. And if we do, we won’t have the tragedies that we did.\u201d<\/p>\n On its Twitter feed, the National Rifle Association was quick to dispel the notion that Kaine was a friend of the 2A. The nation\u2019s gun lobby tweeted that Kaine has earned a perennial \u201cF\u201d rating throughout his political career.<\/p>\n .@timkaine<\/a>: Perennially \u201cF\u201d rated by the #NRA<\/a> during his tenure at both the state and federal levels… https:\/\/t.co\/JNIkoyUvxS<\/a> #VPDebate<\/a><\/p>\n — NRA (@NRA) October 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n #Fact<\/a>: @timkaine<\/a>'s LONG anti-gun record makes him no friend to the #2A<\/a> #VPDebate<\/a> #NeverHillary<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/7OT5AHOOB2<\/a><\/p>\n — NRA (@NRA) October 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The NRA also pounced on Kaine\u2019s insinuation that expanded background checks stop mass killings.<\/p>\n Even fact-checkers agreed policies of Obama, @HillaryClinton<\/a> & @timkaine<\/a>\u00a0wouldn't have stopped shootings https:\/\/t.co\/jy8wDBRLpu<\/a> #VPDebate<\/a><\/p>\n — NRA (@NRA) October 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n .@TimKaine<\/a> says "background record checks" would have prevented mass shootings? That's just not true. https:\/\/t.co\/TRoyTSYpwk<\/a> #VPDebate<\/a><\/p>\n — NRA (@NRA) October 5, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
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