RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://thefederalist.com/2020/10/08/7-quick-takeaways-on-the-2020-vice-presidential-debate/
The vice presidential debate between Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Vice President Mike Pence was more traditional and less raucous than last week’s debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. That debate was a three-way interruption fest marked by Biden losing track of his thoughts and Trump clumsily returning to slights that had occurred 25 minutes earlier.

This debate was less exciting, a reminder of what politics was like before Trump came onto the scene. Still, it had its moments that bolstered each campaign’s strongest arguments. For Pence, that meant a frequent recursion to first principles and first-term successes. For Harris, that meant a focus on coronavirus and negative descriptions of the Republican Party and its president.

Here are a few quick takeaways on how it went down.

1. Pence’s Superpower Is Debating

Mike Pence, a former congressman and talk radio host, started off strong and just kept getting stronger. He clearly came prepared for the debate. He had a ready recall of facts and figures to bolster his points. He nailed the questions he wanted to answer and deflected on the questions he preferred not to answer.

While he let several zingers fly, he stayed calm and steady, pushing back at what he perceived as unduly false statements but without the constant interruptions of the Trump-Biden debate. He spoke slowly and left few cards on the table unplayed. He was nice, firm, decent, and likable.

Pence’s weakest points were when he was on defense about the global pandemic gripping the country. However, he came into the debate prepared to lay out how a Trump-Pence vision for America is better than the one put forth by Biden and Harris and he accomplished that consistently throughout the debate.

He made a strong case for Trump’s foreign policy being effective and Biden’s being decades of failure. He had Kamala Harris on the ropes about whether she and Biden would raise taxes on Americans on their first day in office. He effectively showed the country her refusal to openly support court-packing, a position she previously supported.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/the-pence-harris-debate-and-a-divided-america-645095

The debate between US Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic challenger Kamala Harris on Wednesday night turned out to be a whole different ballgame from the Donald Trump-Joe Biden face-off that took place eight days earlier.

Unlike Trump, Pence is soft-spoken and unflappable. In contrast to Biden, Harris possesses the confidence of an attractive woman combined with the fangs of a pit-bull prosecutor and the complacency of a left-winger encouraged by the latest polls in her party’s favor.Another shift was the identity of the moderator. Fox News’s Chris Wallace had lost his cool during the September 29 presidential debate. Though his questions were intelligent, his intolerance with Trump was glaring.

USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page, who moderated the Pence-Harris match, was calm and collected. But her questions belied her political slant toward Harris.

None of the above, however, explains why millions of Americans and others around the world tuned in and stuck around to watch the 90-minute contest, broadcast on all major channels and live-streamed on websites of major news outlets. It is particularly odd, considering that many viewers voiced their boredom on social media, while others spent the duration joking about the fly that landed on Pence’s head.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/biden-cant-have-it-both-ways-on-the-virus/

When your campaign media arm is also known as “the media,” not only may you enjoy being asked almost nothing but friendly questions, but you may also find that internally inconsistent assertions go unchallenged. Consider the Biden position on coronavirus: He would be tougher on the virus and also easier on the economy at the same time. How’s that?

Think of coronavirus response as a seesaw: If you stomp down on the economic end, and grind it into the ground, the other end — public safety — rises high. At least in theory. We can’t actually be certain how effective the lockdowns have been in containing the virus.

But here’s something we do know: You can’t have both ends of the seesaw high up in the air at the same time. Crush the economy, maybe there’s a big uptick in safety. Loosen up the economy and allow people to mingle in public spaces, and there is a corresponding rise in risk. What is the proper balance of health vs. jobs? No one can really say. If we welded shut the door of every American dwelling, we’d probably reduce the transmission of the virus. And as soon as the doors opened, the virus would start spreading again.

Abetted by the media that shows no interest whatsoever in calling out the logical inconsistencies of Democrats, Biden contends both that he would have been quicker on the draw to prevent the spread of the virus and that he would have magically saved everyone’s job at the same time.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/10/kamala-harris-lied-repeatedly-and-got-away-it-daniel-greenfield/

Senator Kamala Harris rambled through the debate lying about everything, from her call to ban fracking to Abraham Lincoln’s response to a Supreme Court vacancy.

And she won’t be called on it or fact checked about it because her lies are mostly the second hand products of the media that claims to fact check politicians.

If Kamala appeared to be a vacuous and hollow personality, it’s because she’s a delivery system for media narratives that are detached from her own record. Politicians lie a lot, but Kamala doesn’t simply lie, she mimics and echoes, when you listen to her, it’s like putting your ear to a seashell. Her career provides ample evidence that she doesn’t believe in anything. It’s why she can play a tough-on-crime prosecutor one minute and a race-baiter the next. It’s all parts with no substance behind them.

It’s not so much that Kamala is lying, it’s that she adapts, fitting in clumsily to any role, never being good at it, but going with the flow. If the flow appears to be for ending private health care, she’s for it. Then when she realizes it’s controversial, she’s against it.

She can falsely claim that the Biden-Harris, or Harris-Biden, administration wouldn’t raise taxes, even as it proposes to repeal tax cuts, and wouldn’t ban fracking, despite repeatedly promising to ban fracking, without missing a beat because she is a human green room who pushes narratives, without treating them as real. 

Having gotten some briefing materials from her staff, she glances through them, absorbs the substance, and comes to “court” with them, without really understanding them or caring if they’re true, or feeling bound by them. Words come out of her mouth, bypassing her brain which spends most of its time on the laborious process of trying to mimic human social behavior and appearing relatable to the denizens of this planet. Kamala lies all the time, but she has no idea she’s lying.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/10/pence-prevails-lloyd-billingsley/

In Wednesday’s debate, moderator Susan Page of USA Today came out of the gate on the pandemic. Kamala Harris said we were witnessing the “greatest failure of any administration in history.” The Trump administration “said it was a hoax,” covered it up and “they still don’t have a plan.” Joe Biden, Harris said, would stress testing and contact tracing.

Page asked Mike Pence why the U.S. death toll was higher, and the vice president reminded viewers that President Trump suspended travel from China, which Biden opposed as xenophobic. The president’s national mobilization that saved hundreds of thousands of lives and he launched Operation Warp Speed for a vaccine. The Biden plan, Pence said, “looks like plagiarism, which is something Joe Biden knows about.”

Harris said she would take a vaccine if doctors approved it, but not if President Trump approved it. Pence took her to task for undermining public confidence and “playing politics with lives.” The vice president reminded viewers that the administration in 2009, by their advisor’s own admission “did everything wrong” on the swine flu epidemic that affected 60 million Americans.

Page said the recent White House event for Amy Coney Barrett was a “super spreader.” Harris cited the event as “ineptitude.” By contrast, Pence said, “Trump trusts people. They talk about mandates. We are about freedom.”

Page also raised the issue of possible presidential disability. Harris told viewers she was the first woman of color to be district attorney in San Francisco and the second black woman in the Senate. “Joe knows we share a purpose,” Harris said. Joe Biden had been “incredibly transparent,” on his health record, and on his taxes.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/mike-pence-aces-the-audition/

EXCERPT

Pence’s capacity to respectfully and convincingly weave stories into a coherent articulation of the merits of his own worldview and the problems with his political opponents’ is undeniable. On coronavirus, Pence held his own and rightfully pointed out that the Biden campaign is without novel ideas to address it. On every other subject, he embarrassed the California senator on both substance and style. Without apology, he defended the pro-life position. Without reservation, he explained why the strike that eliminated Qasem Soleimani was not only justified, but vital to U.S. interests. The whole evening was a reminder of just how appealing the conservative agenda can be when it’s not packaged within Donald Trump.

In 2024, Mike Pence has a case for being that package.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/kamala-harris-dishonesty-on-abe-lincoln/

It was impossible to miss how Kamala Harris, like Joe Biden, refused to answer questions about their plans to expand the Supreme Court. But she also misrepresented history.

Harris claimed at the VP debate that Abraham Lincoln refused to nominate a candidate for Chief Justice in October 1864 because “Honest Abe said, it’s not the right thing to do” and wanted the people to vote first.

Lincoln, of course, said no such thing. He sent no nominee to the Senate in October 1864 because the Senate was out of session until December. He sent a nominee the day after the session began, and Salmon P. Chase was confirmed the same day. And Lincoln wanted to dangle the nomination before Chase and several other potential candidates because he wanted them to campaign for him. Lincoln’s priority was winning the election, which was necessary to win the war — and he filled the vacancy at the first possible instant.

Kamala Harris is simply inventing history.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/10/kamala_harris_won__if_the_prize_was_awarded_for_the_most_lies_in_a_debate.html

The vice-presidential debate is over. If the winner is the person who quietly dominated the room, fought off two antagonists, never lost focus, and landed one deadly blow after another, then the winner must be Mike Pence, hands down. However, if the score was for the person who lied incessantly and refused to answer a critical question, Harris is the winner.

Before getting to the lies, the most important moment of the evening was Harris’s refusal to answer when asked about packing the Supreme Court. Pence had cornered Kamala, telling her to answer whether she and Joe would pack the Supreme Court. It was a question that required a “yes” or a “no” answer. Instead, Kamala squirmed, lied, smirked, and played the race card, all the while hoping no one would notice she hadn’t answered. Pence noticed, though, and he put it on the record:

And then, as I said, there were the lies. Pence masterfully rebutted as many as he could, but an easily uttered five-second lie may require a longer rebuttal, and the moderator worked hard to deny Pence the chance to correct the record. The following are just some truths to rebut Kamala’s many lies:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mike-pences-re-election-case-11602131584?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

The pre- and post-debate spin about Wednesday’s clash of vice-presidential candidates from the left was that it’s merely a sideshow. They say the appearance of rhetorical norms is an illusion with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. But Mike Pence and Kamala Harris did a public service by offering a contrast on issues and values that voters aren’t getting from the media or the presidential candidates.

The Vice President did as well as he could playing defense on the pandemic, especially with his accurate gibe that Joe Biden’s policy sounds like policy plagiarism. Senator Harris’s main critique on the virus, as on most other issues, was less about substance than about Mr. Trump’s rhetoric and personal behavior. It’s a powerful point that Mr. Trump reinforces daily. But Mr. Pence is right that on vaccines and testing and other details, the Biden “plan” is mostly Mr. Trump’s.

Mr. Pence was most effective in pointing out how far left the Biden-Harris Democrats have moved. With Donald Trump’s personal antics sucking up all the media attention, voters haven’t heard much about Mr. Biden’s $2 trillion in spending over four years on the Green New Deal; the $4 trillion of tax increases that will reach into the working class through higher business and corporate rates; their goal of eliminating fossil fuels that would cost jobs and raise energy prices; and the Biden record on foreign policy that includes opposing the raid on Osama bin Laden.

Mr. Pence also exposed Senator Harris for refusing to answer, as Mr. Biden also did last week, whether they support packing the Supreme Court if Judge Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed. Their response that the election is the issue now and everyone should vote is embarrassing even by the standards of political evasion. If they won’t disavow Court-packing now, it’s on the table with a Democratic Senate, House and White House.

https://spectator.us/single-mind-change-vp-debate/

It was a predictable clash between two solid professionals, who said what they came to say, and not one jot more.

Both evaded the awkward questions. Pence never explained how a second Trump term would handle pre-existing medical conditions and Harris never renounced a potential court-packing scheme. Neither answered questions about abortion beyond repeating their parties’ positions.

We did learn Harris admires Abraham Lincoln. Pence admires police and first-responders. The controversy surrounding these bold positions should die down over the next week or two.

Moderator Susan Page jumped over the low bar set by Chris Wallace, but she made two predictable errors. She asked some biased questions and stuck to a formulaic format that produces two parallel interviews. When a real debate threatened to break out, she stepped in to quash it. Voters were left exactly where they were when the night began.

Oh, yes, and children are our future. The final Q&A made clear. We can all rest a little easier after that was settled.