VP Debate 2016: Gov. Mike Pence's 5 Most Memorable Quotes From Face-Off With Sen. Tim Kaine
The only Vice-Presidential debate has come and gone with once again, no real consensus on who really won, with Senator Tim Kaine adopting a strategy similar to Donald Trump by interrupting Governor Mike Pence throughout the debate, while Pence shot off weak defenses against his running mate.
While it may be hard to really determine whether one candidate won over the other, or if they basically came in at a draw, it isn't hard to dent that the 90-minute debate wasn't a spirited one, with several memorable quotes uttered by both men, as they either defended their running mates or attacked their opponent.
Here are five of the most memorable thinks Mike Pence said during the debate:
"Senator you've whipped out that Mexican thing again."
In response to Tim Kaine bringing up Donald Trump's comments about Mexicans when he first announced he was running for President last year, Pence tried to end the discussion with that off-handed phrase. Not only did it not really work, but it also set off a Twitter firestorm of people trying to explain what that comment meant to them.
"To be honest, if Donald Trump said all of those things you said he said, in the way you said he said those things, he wouldn't have a fraction of the insults that Hillary Clinton leveled when she said half of our voters were a basket of deplorables."
Pence did try to do some damage control concerning some of the more inflammatory things that Trump has said throughout his campaign, but mainly went about it the wrong way, by mostly denying each individual thing that Kaine brought up (calling Mexicans rapists and criminals, insulting women and saying they should be punished for abortions, comments against a judge with Mexican-born parents, saying John McCain shouldn't be a war hero etc), or trying to change the words around. That was a mistake however, since almost all of those things have since been proven to be things that Donald Trump did indeed say at one point or another.
"Senator, you and Hillary Clinton would know a lot about an insult-driven campaign....[Tim Kaine]said it is an 'insult-driven' campaign. Did you all just hear that ours is an 'insult-driven campaign?'"
While Clinton has said things that were considered insults as well (the basket of deplorables comment comes to mind), Pence's attempt to claim that he and Donald Trump were not doing the same thing was pretty much proven wrong immediately-since Trump live-tweeted more than a few insults at Tim Kaine during the debate, something that wasn't really lost on HIllary Clinton.
"Senator, do you take all of the deductions you're entitled to? I do!"
After initially side-stepping a question about Trump's tax returns, something Kaine continued to bring up, Pence asked if Clinton's running mate didn't use tax codes and laws to his advantage, something that he admitted he did. He did manage to defend the fact that Trump has likely not paid taxes in two decades however, by correctly citing the Tax codes that Trump said he used "brilliantly"--laws that do exist.
"Let me say, at the risk of agreeing with you, community policing is a great idea. It has worked in the Hoosier State. We fully support that."
In a rare moment of bipartisanship, Pence agreed with Kaine about a way to better handle issues with law enforcement, a shining moment for him since bipartisan agreement has been mainly absent from the political arena for a long time.