As soon as the vice-presidential debate ended, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews called the debate for Republican vice-presidential candidate, Mike Pence. His reasoning made me sick to my stomach, so I changed the channel to see what CNN had to say and they too stated that Pence won.
I sat there shocked, totally amazed at the power of the media and the way this debate was spun to make the American people accept a Pence win.
The Spin? “Mike Pence looked more presidential.”
That’s all. That’s all the political pundits had to say about Pence after the debate was over. That’s all they wanted to see to decide who won the debate. A total disregard to the fact that Mike Pence was unable to prosecute the case for why Americans should put the Trump ticket in the White House.
Pence sat at the debate table and lied, and lied, and lied. He denied recorded facts about things Trump has said – things like banning all Muslims from coming into this country or when Trump called all Mexicans “rapers and killers.” Pence sat in his chair “looking all presidential” according to the talking-heads on MSNBC and CNN, and he lied to the American people when he was put on the spot by the Democratic vice president candidate, Tim Kaine. When Kaine asked why Trump calls women disparaging names for example, Pence looked the right into the camera and denied those recorded facts.
But he “looked presidential” so apparently, he won… according to the political talking heads.
Time Kaine on the other hand did his homework and it showed. He came to the debate armed with direct verbiage, quotes from Donald Trump and Mike Pence himself, and Kaine asked Pence to defend the things he and Trump say. Pence couldn’t, so he lied… again! Yes, Kaine interrupted Pence a few times, but wouldn’t you do the same if your opponent’s game plan was to “look presidential” and lie?
Americans know the game. Tim Kaine clearly won the debate. He was prepared, armed with facts and policies and he clearly expressed why Hillary Clinton should be the next president. But giving Kaine the win would not jive with the apparent talking point these pundits wanted to promote – that Mike Pence threw Donald Trump under the bus and is preparing himself for a top-of-the-ticket run in four years.
If all the pundits say this in unison, word will eventually get back to Donald Trump setting up the news for the rest of the week – the inevitable credit Trump will take for Pence winning the VP debate.
And less than 24 hours after Pence was crowned the winner, Donald Trump spoke to his followers telling them that he deserves the credit.
“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 was phenomenal. He was cool, he was smart. He was meant to be doing what he’s doing and we’re very, very proud of Gov. Mike Pence.”
