Mike Pence spent Tuesday night’s debate being outraged by Donald Trump’s insults—but he directed his outrage at Tim Kaine for daring to repeat them. After Kaine cited a litany of Trump’s actual, for-real words, from calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals to calling women “slobs, pigs, dogs, disgusting” to Trump’s notorious attack on John McCain, to his years-long birther crusade, Pence just really couldn’t believe Kaine could be so rude.
“I was listening to the avalanche of insults coming out of Senator Kaine a minute ago,” Pence, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, said at one point.
Kaine jumped in. “These were Donald’s — hold on a second, Governor.”
“He says ours is an insult-driven campaign,” Pence continued, once moderator Elaine Quijano reminded Kaine that it was Pence’s time to speak. “Did you all just hear that? Ours is an insult-driven campaign?”
There’s the well-known political tactic of accusing your opponent of whatever you know to be your own greatest weakness. Then there’s this. Suggesting that your opponent is uniquely insulting and has insulted both you and the American people by repeating things your own running mate has said is one of the more brazen debating moves imaginable. Can you imagine Pence’s debate preparation?
“How are you going to respond when Kaine brings up the insults to Mexicans and women, Mike?”
“Well, I think I’m just going to pretend that he’s the one doing the insulting, like I never heard such ugliness before in my life.”
“Good call, man. Can you seem wounded and disbelieving while you do it, or is that a bridge too far?”
“No, I can definitely do that. Then I’ll pivot to ‘deplorables’ as the real main insult of this campaign, because we all know that calling people racist is worse than being racist.”
And all the while, as Pence was putting on the performance of a lifetime as the aggrieved party being insulted by a wrongful accusation of being insulting, Donald Trump, the man at the top of the ticket, was … tweeting insults.
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