Republican National Committee
10:38 PM

RNC Statement on Vice Presidential Debate

WASHINGTON — Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel released the following statement on tonight's Vice Presidential Debate

"Tonight, Americans saw the proven and principled leadership Vice President Pence has provided as part of the most successful administration in modern history. He highlighted the progress of the Coronavirus taskforce that he leads, touted the significant job growth in all sectors of our economy and historic judicial nominations, and warned of the disastrous ramifications that a Harris-Biden ticket would have on our country.
 
"Kamala Harris’ record as the most liberal U.S. Senator and her support for policies like banning fracking, raising trillions of dollars in taxes, and eliminating private health insurance show that Joe Biden is in complete lockstep with the far-left’s radical agenda. Her continued refusal to answer basic questions like whether she and Joe Biden support packing the Supreme Court is more proof  that neither of them would serve the best interest of the American people.
 
"Our country is on a Great American Comeback thanks to President Trump and Vice President Pence’s leadership, and that comeback will continue when voters re-elect the Trump-Pence ticket on November 3rd."
 
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Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
10:45 PM

Trump Campaign Statement on Vice Presidential Debate

“Vice President Mike Pence made clear tonight that President Trump is the clear choice to continue to rebuild the American economy,.  Vice President Pence exposed Joe Biden’s plan to raise taxes by $4 trillion, strangle the economy with Green New Deal regulations, ban fracking, abolish fossil fuels, and kill millions of jobs in the process. And Vice President Pence made clear that President Trump has stood up to China and protected American jobs, while Biden has spent decades rolling over for the communist Chinese. Vice President Pence eviscerated Biden’s record on foreign policy and his willingness to coddle terrorists and state sponsors of terror. Senator Harris is the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate and it showed, as she continued to push Joe Biden to the left. President Trump built the world’s best economy once and is already doing it a second time.  And as Vice President Pence made clear, President Trump has accomplished more in 47 months than Biden has in 47 years.”

Biden for President
October 8, 2020 12:25 AM

It’s Clear Why Joe Biden Chose Kamala Harris as His Running Mate

Mike Pence may not have shouted like Donald Trump, but the lies and the dodging were still the same. Neither of them have a plan for the issues facing American families. Neither could lay out a clear strategy to address COVID-19. Neither discussed their long-awaited health care “plan” or explain how they could maintain protections for pre-existing conditions even as they’re fighting at the Supreme Court trying to get rid of them.
 
And most importantly, neither Donald Trump nor Mike Pence could explain away their failures over the last four years, or make the case for why they deserve another four.
 
There was only one candidate on stage tonight who articulated policies and plans to help working families and small businesses, to protect our health care, and to follow the science -- science to contain COVID-19 and science to address climate change. Kamala Harris.
 
CNN’s Oliver Darcy: “Results of the CNN instant poll: 59% say Harris won, 38% say Pence won.”
 

Kamala focused on the issues that matter to working families.
 
Jonathan Alter: The two best arguments for Biden are that Trump has mishandled the coronavirus and will not protect people with preexisting conditions. Harris made both arguments convincingly.
 
Republican strategist Tara Setmayer: Reminding people of the pattern of disrespect Trump has exhibited toward our military was an excellent response by @KamalaHarris Pence lost that exchange by A LOT. #VPDebateTakes #VPDebate
 
Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin: Pence was on defense and looked uncomfortable while displaying once more Republicans' lack of respect for women. Harris was polished and got in long, specific policy statements delivered direct to camera. A win for Democrats.
 

While Pence lied and deflected.
 
Jehmu Greene: Right, @KamalaHarris. Wow, just wow. He thinks if he cloaks his lies in a soft tone it makes it easier to swallow. #VPDebate
 
Daily Kos: It's telling that Pence is talking to the moderator and Harris is talking to the American people. #VPDebate
 

Kamala won this debate.
 
New York Times’s Wajahat Ali: Pence lost. Its done. #VPDebate
 
Shar Jossell: As expected, she is clocking the hell out of him and that administration. #VPDebate
 
The Nation’s Joan Walsh: At the end of each segment, Kamala looks excited, Pence looks exhausted.
 
MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski: Kamala killing it.
 
Matt Helms: Kamala Harris is rocking it tonight. She came to debate. Pence came to deflect. #VPDebate
 
New Yorker’s Philip Gourevitch: pence is trying to run down the clock rather than answer any of susan page’s incredible simple straightforward questions.”
 
ABC News Chief Political Analyst Matthew Dowd: Kamala won the debate. Won’t fundamentally alter the election which is really bad for trump pence because they are significantly behind. Pence lies as much as trump. He just does it more sincerely.
 
Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh: Kamala won. #VPDebate
 
Jonathan Alter: Pence lost this debate by repeatedly going over time and mansplaining in a smarmy way. Harris avoided being too aggressive but got her points in. She won easily.
 
CNN Commentator Keith Boykin: Kamala Harris clearly won tonight's debate. Mike Pence needed to score a knockout to change the trajectory of Trump's losing campaign, and he failed to do that.
 
AFT President Randi Weingarten: It’s clear who won tonight’s debate and that was @KamalaHarris. And she gave us the reminder we needed: your vote is your power. If we vote we will win. #VPdebate #AFTvotes
 
Former Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder: Kamala won.  The process lost - again.  Fix the format.
 
Congresswoman Linda Sánchez: Congratulations to @KamalaHarris, the winner of tonight’s #VPDebate. She stood for science. She told the truth. She brought receipts. California is proud of you.
 
Gloria Allred: U.S. Senator Kamala Harris was a star in the debate with V.P. Pence. She clearly won the debate. She demonstrated that she is not just prepared to be V.P., but that she is also prepared to be President one day. Pence could not defend the indefensible - Trump. She made us proud.
 
ABC’s Will Steakin:
[CNN flash poll graphic]

Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
Trump Rapid Response
12:33 AM

Top 5 Must-Watch Moments from the Vice Presidential Debate

Vice President Pence was strong and straightforward. Kamala Harris was not.
 
Tonight, Americans saw Vice President Mike Pence expose the radical, far-left policies that a Harris-Biden Administration would force on the country, and articulate a robust defense of the Trump-Pence Administration’s accomplishments and vision for the future. It was a stark contrast with the weakness and evasiveness exhibited by phony Kamala Harris on virtually every issue.

Here are the top five must-watch moments from tonight’s debate:

  • VP Pence lambasted Joe Biden’s failure to confront ISIS terrorists and save Kayla Mueller. “When Joe Biden was vice president, they hesitated for a month…. Her family says…if President Donald Trump had been president, they believe Kayla would be alive today,” he said.
  • VP Pence contrasted President Trump’s record of cutting taxes for middle-class families with Joe Biden’s plan to raise taxes by $4 trillion. “America, you just heard Senator Harris tell you, on day one, Joe Biden’s going to raise your taxes,” he said.
  • VP Pence slammed Joe Biden for sending American jobs overseas to China. “Joe Biden has been a cheerleader for communist China over the last several decades,” he said.
  • VP Pence called out Kamala Harris for supporting massive tax hikes, a job-killing Green New Deal, banning fracking, and surrendering to China. “The American economy, the American comeback is on the ballot,” he said.
  • Kamala Harris refused—once again—to say if she and Biden will pack the U.S. Supreme Court. “The straight answer is, they are going to back the Supreme Court if they somehow win this election,” said VP Pence.

Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
Trump Rapid Response
1:07 AM

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: Vice President Pence was the Overwhelming Winner of Tonight’s Debate

The far-left agenda of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden was on full display.
 

Kamala Harris was the clear loser of tonight’s vice presidential debate. Her far-left agenda was on full display, even as she tried to dodge basic questions.

  • Megan McArdle, Washington Post: "Kamala Harris is… not a great debater."
     
  • Alice Steward, CNN: "Sen. Harris can shake her head all she wants - but GovTrack did name her "the most liberal compared to all Senators." #VPDebate"
     
  • Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks: "Good news for progressives- apparently @SenKamalaHarris is a super weak debater. Should be easy to take her on during 2024 primaries and crush her in those debates. She blew a golden opportunity to hand Mike Pence his ass. She barely touched Trump in a 90 minute debate. #VPDebate"
     
  • Musadiq Bidar, CBS News: "Pence tells Harris she has repeatedly said she would ban fracking. Last September during a CNN Town Hall @KamalaHarris said she is in favor of banning fracking. "There is no question I'm in favor of banning fracking," Harris said a year ago."
     
  • José Díaz-Briseño, Mexico Today: "Pence has a point: Not only Kamala Harris was one of few Senators voting NAY on USMCA but she was the only Senator from a US/Mexico border state who didn’t support the deal.  All other US/Mexico border state Senate Dems (Feinstein, Sinema, Udall, Heinrich) voted YEA"
     
  • Noah Rothman, MSNBC: "BTW, Harris said that “Trump called it a hoax,” in which the “it” to which she referred was the COVID pandemic. That is also false."
     
  • David Axelrod, former Obama adviser: Harris “should’ve had a better answer than the non-answer that she gave” on packing the Supreme Court.
     
  • Kasie Hunt, NBC News: VP Pence “actually is the one who asked Kamala Harris about what’s called packing the court… and Kamala Harris wouldn’t answer that question. She sort of deflected instead.”
     
  • Jim Geraghty, National Review: “Asked a really open-ended and important question about what our relationship with China would be like under a Biden presidency, Kamala Harris veers off into the pandemic criticism we heard 20 minutes ago.”
     
  • Jake Tapper, CNN: “Harris wouldn’t answer the question about the court packing, and that’s significant, and Biden and Harris should answer it.”
     
  • Saager Enjeti, The Hill TV: “This Kamala Harris answer on China is literally incomprehensible and has NOTHING to do with China”
     
  • Frank Luntz, pollster: “The complaint about Kamala Harris was that she was abrasive and condescending… If this is a battle over style and substance, which is often the case with undecided voters … this was Mike Pence’s night.”
     
  • Nikole Killion, CBS News: “[Senator Harris] did not answer the question with regard to the issue of court packing. That is something that we saw in last week’s debate as well… this is actually something that I put to her chief of staff earlier today if we would get a clear answer from the senator on this, and clearly she did not."

Vice President Pence was the overwhelming winner of tonight’s debate. He strongly and straightforwardly articulated the Trump-Pence accomplishments and made the case for four more years of their America First policies.

  • Norah O’Donnell, CBS News: “Mike Pence was masterful… And many times, it seemed like Kamala was on defense.”
     
  • Sara Fagen, ABC News: “Vice President Pence “was very strong on the economy. He really had Kamala Harris on the defense, specifically on the Green New Deal and the impact that would have on jobs and taxes. So I thought he did a great job.”
     
  • Linsey Davis, ABC News: “It was Pence who actually really held [Kamala Harris’] feet to the fire. At one point he said, “I just want the record to reflect she never answered the question.” He was referring, of course, to the Supreme Court.”
     
  • Josh Hammer, Newsweek: "This is one of the most one-sided political debates I can recall watching. Pence is in his element and on cruise control."
     
  • James Vick, MMA fighter: "Pence won easily."
     
  • T.J. Moe, podcast host: "I know VP debates don’t typically sway any votes, but Pence is absolutely wrecking shop tonight. Clear, knows the points he can win and is driving them home with authority. Harris looks wildly uncomfortable."
     
  • Rich Lowry, National Review: "Pence wins economic exchange going away"
     
  • Ari Fleischer: "Pence just cleaned Biden’s clock on foreign policy, from Jerusalem to ISIS to NATO to the Iran deal."
     
  • Josh Rogin, CNN: "Pence: “China is to blame for the coronavirus.” Fact check: True"
     
  • Guy Benson, Townhall: “Pence just pressed a member of the Biden-Harris ticket on court-packing harder & more clearly than any journalist has to date.”

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris extreme, job-killing agenda lost the argument, just as they will lose on November 3.

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Americans for Limited Government
Contact: Robert Romano
Oct. 7, 2020                                

VP Debate: Freedom and opportunity vs. socialist enslavement

Oct. 7, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement reacting to tonight’s Vice Presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.):

“Tonight's debate between Vice President Pence and Senator Harris was a direct contrast between conservative midwestern values and San Francisco, California values. Pence's steady, low-key leadership is the perfect balance for President Trump as he leads America on his bold agenda. Senator Harris' main distinctions were being named the most liberal senator in a Senate that includes socialist Bernie Sanders and attacking Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in what was nothing more than a #MeToo witch hunt.

“Once again Senator Kamala Harris joined Joe Biden in refusing to pledge to not pack the Supreme Court eliminating the independence of the judiciary.  Once again, Senator Kamala Harris tried to have it both ways when she said that they would end the Trump tax cut which cut taxes for middle class Americans by $2,000 on average, while denying that their policy is a tax hike on the middle class.  And finally, she and former Vice President Biden want to tell the public that they won’t destroy America’s energy independence through imposing the Green New Deal which Harris eagerly co-sponsored, yet their website still says that the Green New Deal underpins their climate policy which is endorsed by Green New Deal authors Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders.

“America has been given a choice of competing visions for the future. Vice President Pence represents hope of freedom and opportunity in line with the DNA of America. California Senator Harris represents the failed Marxist philosophy that impoverishes and enslaves people wherever it is tried in the world.  Mike Pence represents the solid middle American values that have made America great, and Harris promises to impose San Francisco values on the rest of America.  The choice is clear.”

- Marc Short