After spending most of Wednesday night’s debate failing to defend Donald Trump and then throwing him under the bus, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, Trump’s vice-presidential running mate, did the same thing to women.
First he denied Trump’s assertion that he’d punish women who sought an abortion, then he doubled back and said Trump didn’t mean it.
PENCE: ... Donald Trump and I would never support legislation that punished women who made the heartbreaking choice to end a pregnancy.
KAINE: Then why did Donald Trump say that?
PENCE: We just never would.
KAINE: Why did he say that?
PENCE: Well, look, it's -- look, he's not a polished politician like you and Hillary Clinton. And so...
KAINE: Well, I would admit that's not a polished...
(CROSSTALK)
PENCE: You know, things don't always come out exactly the way he means them.
That’s a little like saying Trump isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, which is what you want in a president—someone who’s confused about his own position even as he reveals it to the public or acts on it.
Kaine continued to torture Pence on his abortion stance throughout the exchange.
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KAINE: Governor, why don't you trust women to make this choice for themselves? We can encourage people to support life. Of course we can. But why don't you trust women? Why doesn't Donald Trump trust women to make this choice for themselves?
PENCE: Because there is -- a society can be judged by how it deals with its most vulnerable, the aged, the infirm, the disabled, and the unborn. I believe it with all my heart.
So apparently he’s not concerned with how a society is judged by the way it treats women. Clinton and Kaine are, however.
We support the constitutional right of American women to consult their own conscience, their own supportive partner, their own minister, but then make their own decision about pregnancy.