The Problem: Pence Doesn’t Defend Trump

Sydney Song
Granada Hills Charter
11th Grade

Vice president candidates Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s VP, from Saint Paul, Michigan and Michael Pence, Donald Trump’s VP, from Columbus, Indiana had a debate hosted by Elaine Quijano on October 4, 2016 at Longwood University in Farmville, VA.

I don’t normally watch presidential debates, let alone the vice presidential debates, but once I got started, I noticed a recurring problem.

Throughout the whole debate, Kaine targets and condemns all points about Trump. However, Pence does not do anything to defend the points Kaine indicates to demean Trump. Kaine notices these actions or rather Pence’s lack of defense for Trump as he merely laughs off the insults by claiming that “they are all false.”The first time Pence fails to address the first insult Kaine brings up was when he brought up Donald Trump’s actions on his Twitter account. Kaine reminds the audience that Trump offends many people on his account and posts immature comments on topics a presidential candidate traditionally shouldn’t discuss or publicly open up about.

Furthermore, when the question was asked about how the debt in the US was going to be solved through the tax plans both presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump offered, Kaine sounded very prepared to respond. He gave a series of steps and points to explain the tax plan he and Clinton plan to enforce. He contrasts their plan with Trump’s plan claiming that their plan ultimately hires more people to lower the unemployment rate while Trump’s plan will eventually result in the firing of more people. Kaine challenged Pence to defend this fault in Trump’s plan, but instead, Pence decides to criticize Clinton’s plan, saying that it will result in more debt for the country. He avoids the question Kaine inquired and addressed the question at a different angle.

To further this pattern, all throughout the debate, Pence dismisses Kaine when Kaine asks him to defend Trump with comments such as “That’s nonsense,” or “Come on, come on.” When he does try to defend his side he can only explain his position in very general and broad statements and rather than addressing the problem in a straightforward manner, he tries to appeal to the emotion and terrifying memories of the audience. For example, when asked about whether America is more safe today than it was eight years ago, he responds by referring to the bombing of the Pentagon and insisting that what America needs right now is a strong leader. He averts from the critiques Kaine makes him face and proceeds to “walk around the bush.”

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