The Vice Presidential Debate

by Angela Bell

Debate season is in full swing as Election Day creeps closer.  The vice presidential debate took place Tuesday, Oct. 4 at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia, just over a week after the first presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine and Trump’s running mate Mike Pence came out swinging in the very early minutes of the event. While debating  topics like national security, immigration, Russia, cyber security and abortion, among others, the VP hopefuls did not shy away from jabs against their rival campaigns.

Much of the discourse was focused on defending their running mates’ past comments, records and public perceptions.

Kaine raised an issue multiple times that Trump was running an “insult-driven campaign”, which Pence attempted to refute while bringing forth concerns of his own.

CBS moderator Elaine Quijano repeatedly had to regain order, as the debaters often talked over each other and cut into the other’s time. Kaine was criticized afterwards by pundits and viewers alike for frequently interrupting Pence.

Pence was tasked with trying to defend Trump’s past statements and often did so by putting forward his own much gentler input on issues.

In contrast to the presidential debate in which there were heavy arguments on both sides as to who won, this debate appeared to show a clear winner.  Polls consistently depicted Pence as the victor, including those conducted by the Washington Post, Fox News, CNN and other news organizations.

Clinton and Trump will square off once again on Oct. 9 and Oct. 19. Viewers can expect the questions to get tougher, tensions to grow deeper and the stakes to rise higher.