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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
You know, when the question from the 8th Grade girl from Utah came up, I thought, “nah, there was no 8th Grade girl. This is fake.”
And then they said her name was “Brecklyn.” And then I knew it was real. That’s a Utah name for sure.
Trump allowed Americans to return home. He even addressed this.
I heard a “political analyst” this morning claiming Kamala had “without a doubt shown that she has the gravitas to be President”. The other fool in the conversation said his wife just rolled her eyes during the debate and said about Pence’s comments, “This is what women have to put up with.”
How many of these people are there?
Hopefully not enough to matter.
Kamala reminds too many people of their worst bosses ever.
Or is that just me?
I am one of the magazine’s biggest defenders but several of their writers are really annoying me right now. I won’t name names. It doesn’t bode well for a magazine when Democrats form the bulk of the followers on several writers’ tweets. The print magazine is still quality stuff.
Every state was supposed to store all of the PPE they were supposed to need. None of them did. This was all decided in about 2006.
I think it’s more widespread than you’d expect. There are so many young-ish (say, aged 25-40) American women who have convinced themselves that men are oppressing them. Mr. Charlotte and I (mid-40s) happen to know, between us, several dozen highly-educated women in this age cohort. To a one, they all feel this way.
It’s mystifying.
They fact check – you just have to be skilled at interpretation.
If a Republican was misleading, their statement was True. If a Democrat is Mostly True, their statement was a bald-faced lie.
The details are in the synopsis (that no one reads). Everyone checks the meter graphic, but no one actually reads the analysis. The analysis is usually accurate with good information.
Today’s big winner:
Too many.
I loved that part. Someone on the Fans of the Best of the Web Today timed how long each candidate spoke before saying time. Of the comments I saw, Pence was just shy of the 2 minute mark and Harris was 15-20 seconds after the 2 minute mark before the moderator interjected.
Here’s another good one!
Drew,
Well somebody must have heard our discussion.
Washington Post fact-check’s Harris’ ‘little history lesson’ about Lincoln: ‘Wasn’t exactly true’
They managed to do their jobs. Hallelujah.
Regards,
Jim
It’s a miracle!