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VP Pence Calmly Dismantles Kamala Harris
Vice President Mike Pence dominated Sen. Kamala Harris in the first and only veep debate Wednesday night. And he did so quietly, calmly, and methodically.
As expected, this was more subdued than the first presidential debate. USA Today’s Susan Page moderated the University of Utah event in Salt Lake City. Nearly all of Page’s questions came from the left but she didn’t rush to make herself the story, a la Chris Wallace.
The Vice President remained zenlike for 90 minutes straight, complimenting Harris while politely sliding in a shiv. He congratulated Harris for her “historic nomination” then asked why she voted for the Green New Deal. He highlighted her prosecutorial record but was curious why she indicted so many more blacks than whites.
A masterful performance, from start to finish.
Harris repeatedly attempted a “you go, girl” moment — like when she portrayed then-opponent Biden as a racist for rejecting busing — but consistently failed. Feigning high dudgeon doesn’t work when your adversary is so gosh-darned polite.
The California senator opened by calling the White House’s Coronavirus response “the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country.” Her answers didn’t get better from there.
Pence praised the anti-pandemic effort, noting how Joe Biden ridiculed Trump’s closing of travel from China. Pence said the rest of Biden’s plan was plagiarized from Trump.
Harris insisted that she wouldn’t take a Trump-endorsed COVID vaccine. “If Donald Trump tells us we should take it, I’m not taking it,” she said.
“The fact that you continue to undermine public confidence in a vaccine, if the vaccine emerges during the Trump administration, I think, is unconscionable,” Pence replied. “Stop playing politics with people’s lives.”
Other questions addressed economic recovery, climate change, the Supreme Court, and foreign relations.
Harris claimed Trump had “betrayed our friends and embraced dictators around the world.” Pence blasted the Iran Deal, then noted that “when Joe Biden was vice president, he had an opportunity to save Kayla Mueller,” he said. “It breaks my heart to reflect on it.”
Pence’s guests included the parents of Kayla Mueller, who was murdered by ISIS in February 2015.
As for meaningless moments on which the press loves to fixate, a fly landed on Pence’s head for about a minute. Blue-check journos on Twitter couldn’t stop talking about it.
Perhaps they’ll try to sell the fly as Pence’s “binders full of women” moment. They certainly can’t point to anything Harris did.
Published in Elections
Instant reax are hard to write–at least I’ve always found that to be the case. But Jon? He’s becoming a master of the form. (And I know he’s a “master” because I agree with every word.)
I agree that Pence bested her, but I was constantly irritated that he droned on and on and on after his time was up, while the moderator kept saying “thank you Mr. Vice President.” He didn’t try to speed up his response, nor did he add anything valuable after his time expired. He was like a wind-up toy on automatic pilot.
Well, I did see Twitter praising Harris’ make-up and fashion choices. So quite the steps forward there for womankind.
Tonight I am very proud of our esteemed, courteous, dignified and most knowledgeable Vice President Mike Pence! Bravo on a stellar debate performance! As to the Democrat, the less said the better except that she was the picture of gross arrogance and condescension. Off putting!
I like Pence. I might vote for him for president someday. But he makes a good number two guy. He’s not the radical leader we need that throws wrenches in the system that we need now.
Thanks, boss!
I, too, have a very simple test to determine the sagacity and erudition of any writer:
Step 1: Do they agree with me? If ‘YES’, proceed to Step 2.
Step 2: Sagacity and erudition confirmed.
Here’s the first bug for Biden meme Ive found:
The Ricochet live chat was way fun. I’m just sorry I have to miss the one on election night. I will be working at the county elections department, doing ballot signature verification (WA has all-mail voting).
The power went out (some storms and high winds passing through here tonight) right after people in the Ricochet live chat mentioned the fly on Pence’s head. Checking my Facebook news feed after the power came back on 20 minutes ago, all my lib friends could talk about was the fly. I’ll take that as a good sign that they are unable to brag about Kamala’s debate performance and are deflecting to trifling distractions.
Are we sure his ‘instant’ reaction was not written before or during the debate?
not a criticism, I would do the same thing
Let’s not forget the ‘plagiarism’ line by Pence.
The Biden plan copies Trump’s plan for ‘combating the virus’. More plagiarism from Biden.
I still have no idea what Build Back Better means.
I knew it! Just like that butterfly on the Simpsons:
Build Back Better was one of his verbal brainfarts. They decided to run with it as a slogan rather than admit so.
The Fly is an asymptomatic carrier — of what I have no idea
Does sitting vs standing make a difference?
Will Trump and Biden sit or stand next week?
If Biden sits he will be more likely to fall asleep?
No ban on fracking?
No green new deal?
Evading questions about packing Supreme Court and new states DC and PR?
These lies and evasions are examples of socialist distancing
I think Trump should hammer on them refusing to answer those questions. Biden’s answer was that if he answered, it would become “the issue”. Well, yeah. His position on policy is a campaign issue. Trump should say Biden won’t answer because the answer is yes, and 70% of the country is against it. Force Biden to either admit that, or angrily deny it. Either way, it costs him votes.
Pence embodied a granite exterior and a consistent forceful personality. Harris on the other hand seemed to be caught trying to walk two tightropes, one the arch-professional DA and sitting US Senator, and the other an impoverished and underappreciated POC. She was I suppose trying to play to what she considers a low-income and under-appreciated base, but it came across to me as inconsistent and insincere.
The democrats are still running on the platform of Not-Trump. They still believe that being Not-Trump is reason enough to vote for them. They dont have to have a platform, they dont have to campaign. They only have to advertise They’re not Trump.
At least Hillary would at least had some policy positions. The Biden line kind of reminded me of PM Kim Campbell’s response to a voter question “We’re in the middle of an election, this is not the time to have a serious policy discussion”, she would go on to loose 154 seats in the 1993 election, wiping out the Conservative Party.
one side is playing on emotion, the more people check the facts, the better
Is it just me or did anyone else scream when Mike Pence let a golden opportunity slip by? When queried about what he would do if Roe vs. Wade were overturned, he failed to bring up Kamalla Harris’s vote on the “Born Alive” act where her and nearly every other Democrat Senator voted down the bill that would make it against the law to kill new born babies that survived botched abortions. And they call us the “Nazis.”
I knew from the day after this monstrous vote took place that Republicans would do their best to ignore this generous gift handed to them on a golden platter. Since then I don’t recall any Republicans other than Ted Cruz even bringing this up in interviews. The vast majority of Americans would be appalled if they knew such a vote took place, even probably most Democrats.
He totally hit the nail on the head and is a pleasure to read.
Oh how I wish they would check the facts….
Victor D Hanson made a very good point on Laura Ingraham tonight: he said the best way to win on the issue of covid is to say that the lockdowns are now more dangerous and deadly than the virus itself.
This is some of the wildest rhetoric in United States history. It’s like Rep. Steve King or something. If a Republican said something equivalent, they would be crucified.
Shhhhhh.
The reason is a secret.