Yesterday, Donald Trump presented himself as the real winner of the vice presidential debate earlier this week. Despite how ridiculous and arrogant that was, Fox News was there to help promote the meme.
On Fox’s Your World show yesterday, host Neil Cavuto opened with a clip of Trump taking credit for Pence’s performance:
TRUMP: [Mike Pence] did an incredible job, and I’m getting a lot of credit because that’s really my first so-called choice. That was my first hire, as we would say in Las Vegas. And I’ll tell you he’s a good one. He was phenomenal. He was cool, he was smart.
Cavuto did not mention that Trump was reportedly peeved that Pence had done better in the VP debate than Trump had done in his.
Instead we heard from Trump supporter Herman Cain, introduced merely as “former Republican presidential candidate,” for some Trump cheerleading disguised as independent political analysis.
Cavuto framed the discussion by asking if Pence’s strong showing put “renewed pressure” on Trump for his next debate.
Cain began by calling Cavuto "my brother of truth” because “there's a lot of lies out there." The chumminess was not only unprofessional it seemed designed to give Cain an extra dollop of credibility.
But Cain wasted little time getting to crediting Trump for Pence’s debate:
CAIN: Look, I believe that Mike Pence’s performance in that exchange last night helped Donald Trump because, as Donald Trump pointed out in that clip that you played, it was his first hire. And it has turned out to be excellent.
Nobody seemed to “remember” that Trump was not enthusiastic about the choice of Pence and reportedly got cold feet over it.
Cain did suggest that Trump could “learn some things” from Pence’s performance. Cain described it as “poised, professional and polite.”
However Cain never pointed out that Pence spent the debate distancing himself from Trump and pretending Trump had not said the things he actually said.
And, surprise! Cavuto didn’t say anything about that either.
Watch the blatant distortion below, from the October 5, 2016 Your World.
The only thing he said that was true during the entire 90 mins was the saying of his name.
Huh …we might want to fact check that!
Oh, and don’t forget Der Furor’s outrageous tweets during the debate helping to prove Pence the liar.
My reaction was that Pence came across as smug and condescending much of the time, and that he simply had no answer for most of the criticisms that were levelled at him by Kaine. Kaine, for his part, was much more fully prepared, but undercut his own strengths with too many interjections. I note that Pence did plenty of interjections of his own throughout.
Pence’s low points in the debate were his ugly condescension and nastiness regarding women’s reproductive rights, and his really scary answer to the final question of the evening. Both men were asked how they would bring people together after such a negative and divisive campaign (particularly as showcased by Trump’s repeated invective). Kaine responded that Hillary Clinton has been known for reaching across the aisle and working with GOP politicians throughout her career. Pence responded that people just wanted “change” and that this would somehow fix everything. In other words, not a single thought toward looking out for anyone but himself.
I also note that Pence’s discussion was riddled with falsehoods, some of which were fairly outrageous. Many of Kaine’s interjections were his attempts to immediately correct the record.
