Vice-presidential candidates spar on Putin, Syria and policing as Democrat launches assault on Trump campaigns most outrageous statements

Donald Trump was put on trial in his absence during the vice-presidential debate as his running mate Mike Pence was accused of trying to defend the indefensible.

But Democrat Tim Kaine, embracing his role as Hillary Clintons attack dog, interrupted so aggressively that many analysts felt he lost the debate on style to the pacify, composed and measured Republican Indiana governor.

In a focus group conducted by strategist Frank Luntz for CBS News in the swaying nation of Ohio, 22 people said that Pence won and only four said Virginia senator Kaine prevailed. When Luntz ran a similar group during last weeks presidential debate, Clinton beat Trump 16 -6.

Pence gave a polished performance that could have given some is expected to be Republicans, and much wishful thinking about a non-Trump top of the ticket, but he was repeatedly forced on to the back foot by a brutal catalogue of the nominees words and deeds.

Six days tonight, I have said to Governor Pence I cant imagine how you can defend your running mates posture on one issue after the next, Kaine said. In all six instances, hes refused to defend his running mate. And yet he is asking everybody to vote for somebody that he cannot defend.

Pence remained steady under fire during the only vice-presidential debate of the campaign but when Kaine brought up Trumps campaign launch claim that the Mexican government is purposely sending rapists into the United States, he awkwardly responded: You whipped out that Mexican thing again. Kaine demanded: Can you defend it?

Kaine attacked the Trump record on issues ranging from tax, nuclear weapons and Senator John McCains war service to his description of women as slob and swine, his suggestion that women who have abortions should be punished and his questioning of Barack Obamas birthplace.

Referring to Trumps past praise for despots, Kaine said: Hes got a personal Mount Rushmore: Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein.

Mostly Pence flatly denied that Trump had constructed controversial the declarations and, instead of defending the candidate, resorted to the strategy of gaslighting, by repeatedly challenging known facts to manipulate the truth.

He claimed Trumps past statements were small potatoes compared with Clintons infamous comment when she described half of Trump supporters as a basket full of deplorables.

Pence ducked, dodged or denied statements that Trump has put on the record. The Clinton campaign accused of him telling downright lies in some instances. David Gergen, a former presidential consultant, said on CNN: Pence will not fare well with fact checkers, but his poise and polish played well with voters. For better or worse, style counts a lot in these debates.

The debate in Farmville, Virginia, with presidential candidates sitting at a table rather than stands at lecterns, was not expected to have a major impact on the presidential race, though Trump himself could not resist a live commentary via Twitter. He claimed: Mike Pence won big. We should all be proud of Mike!

Pence started strongly and looked immediately into the camera in such a way that Kaine did not. After a bewildering political year that has shaken the Republican party, Pence, a 12 -year congressman and Indiana governor came over as a somewhat authentic voice of conservatism who may be consoling and energizing for party members who find Trump distasteful.

He attacked Clintons record as secretary of state, arguing: We insure entire portions of the world, especially the wider Middle East, literally spinning out of control. He cited the crisis in Syria and a newly emboldened Russia following a failed Clinton reset.

Referring to Clintons use of a private email server at her home, Pence, referencing the facts of the case that he and Kaine both have sons who are US marines, remarked: If your son or my son handled classified information the way Hillary Clinton did, theyd be court martialed.

Seeking to play the role of Clinton attack dog, Kaine interrupted several times, perhaps a little too zealously. He delivered some plainly rehearsed lines, telling Cent: You are Donald Trumps apprentice, and asking: Do you want a youre hired president in Hillary Clinton or do you want a youre fired president in Donald Trump?

Pence, who remained composed in manner and voice, a contrast to the thin-skinned Trump, reacted: You use that a whole lot. And I think your running mate use a lot of pre-done lines.

Debating the economy, the Republican said with assurance: Senator, you are able to roll out numbers and the sunny side, but I got to tell you, people in Scranton know different; people in Fort Wayne, Indiana, know different. I entail, this economy is struggling.

Kaine, however, gradually found his footing and scored phases when he attacked Trump. He had plenty of material working in cooperation with. He seized the opportunity to rebroadcast, before an audience of millions, many of Trumps most offensive and infamous statements about Mexicans, Muslims and women.

There is a fundamental respect issue here, the Democrat said. And I just want to talk about the tone set from the top. Donald Trump during this campaign has called Mexicans rapists and criminals, hes called females slobs, animals, dogs, disgusting. I dont like expressed the view that in front of my wife and mother.

He attacked an Indiana-born federal judge and said he was unqualified to hear a federal lawsuit because his mothers were Mexican. He ran after John McCain, a POW, and said he wasnt a hero because hed been captured. He said African Americans are living in hell. And he perpetrated this outrageous and bigoted lie that President Obama is not a US citizen.

He added: I cannot believe that Governor Pence will defend the insult-driven campaign that Donald Trump has run.

On almost every occasion, Pence offered little by way of defense. When confronted with Trumps comments that females should be punished for having abortions, a statement the former reality Tv star afterward attempted to walk back, Pence simply offered: Look, hes not a polished legislator like you and Hillary Clinton.

Why dont you trust women? Kaine retorted.

When the discussion turned to criminal justice reform, both candidates were in agreement on at least one thing: the government must do more to support the police.

But Kaine and Pence differed dramatically on how to resolve heightened tensions between law enforcement and communities of colouring after a series of high-profile police killings of unarmed black men.

Kaine warned of the dangers of Trumps desire for a return to controversial stop-and-frisk tactics while Pence categorically denied there was racial bias in policing tactics. Senator, please, Pence said, turning to Kaine: Enough of this seeking every opportunity to demean law enforcement broadly by making the accusation of implicit bias every time misfortune occurs.

Pence dramatically broke from his running mate on several foreign policy issues, criticizing Putin as a small and bullying leader and carrying a willingness for the United States to engage in military action against the Assad regime. The United States of America should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime to prevent them from this humanitarian crisis that is taking place in Aleppo, Pence said on stage.

In contrast, Trump said in May: I would have stayed out of Syria and wouldnt have fought so much against Assad because I thought that was a whole thing. Although the Republican nominee said Assad was bad in a 2015 interview with the Guardian,he has long made clear that the United States should not intervene in Syria and that the United States should cooperate with Russia, a close regime friend, in the region to combat Islamic militants.

Jason Miller, senior communications adviser to Trump, insisted last night: Mr Trump has been very clear where he stands where it comes to Syria and while I appreciate your efforts to go and try to create a divide between the two, we have a very unified ticket.

Miller added that Governor Pence and Mr Trump will be right in line on Syria and said that there was no daylight between the two on the issue.

David Bossie, Trumps deputy campaign manager, insisted after the debate that he didnt hear that specific line when asked about Cents comments about Putin. He also said he wasnt sure if Trump agreed with his running mate on Syria. I am going to have to talk to Mr Trump about that, Bossie told the Guardian.
Following the debate, moderated by Elaine Quijano of CBS News in Longwood Universitys basketball arena, Clinton campaign aides told reporters that Pence had arrived with a gameplan to present a more reasonable posture and to avoid defending Trump at all costs.

Mike Pence could have given the performance of their own lives tonight and it wouldnt have made a dimes worth a difference in terms of convincing the public that Donald Trump is temperamentally fit to be president, Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, said in the spin room.

Clintons campaign manager, Robby Mook, said Pence essentially threw Donald Trump under the bus on several policy issues, including US-Russia relations and the Syrian civil war.

Thats disturbing, Mook said. These two people have to work as a division. That clearly was not on display here tonight.

John Brabender, an adviser to the Pence campaign, said: I supposed from the opening bell, Pence seemed strong and likable and articulated the issues extremely well and won the debate going away.

He added: More importantly he did probably the best task between the two debates of somebody proving both a vision for Trump and laying out the instance against Hillary Clinton. I thought he did a better task than Donald Trump did.

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