The two candidates for US vice president launched bitter attacks on the reputations and policies of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Tuesday during a fiery debate five weeks from Election Day.<\/p>\n
Polls show Clinton gaining in the wake of a punishing week for her Republican rival Trump, who has been hammered by controversies over his taxes and his treatment of women.<\/p>\n
Kaine, a senator from Virginia, took aim at Trump from the beginning, saying the idea of the brash Republican as commander-in-chief \u201cscares us to death.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine how Governor Pence can defend the insult-driven, selfish, me-first style of Donald Trump,\u201d Kaine said.<\/p>\n
Kaine sought to portray himself as a deeply experienced local, state and national politician who would be the \u201cright-hand person\u201d for Clinton, whom he described as trustworthy and more than capable in the role of commander in chief.<\/p>\n
An imperturbable Pence, governor of Indiana and a Christian conservative, calmly shot back.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would know a lot about an insult-driven campaign,\u201d he said, highlighting Clinton\u2019s relentless criticism of Trump and how she painted half of her Republican rival\u2019s supporters as \u201cdeplorables.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see entire portions of the world, particularly the wider Middle East, spinning out of control. The situation we\u2019re watching hour-by-hour in Syria today is the result of the weak foreign policy that Hillary Clinton helped lead in this administration and create.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many Americans, the debate was their first prolonged exposure to the men who would be next in line for the presidency if their side wins in November.<\/p>\n
\u2018Shooting himself in the foot\u2019 –<\/p>\n
Pence is as modest and polite in style as Trump is brash and insulting, while Kaine, who also has a calm style on Capitol Hill, appeared to take a more aggressive stance than Pence in attacking the rival camp.<\/p>\n
He sought to drill down on issues that appeared to have given Clinton a bump in the polls demanding Trump release his tax returns and mocking the White House hopeful for some of his impulsive Twitter missteps during the campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cDonald Trump can\u2019t start a Twitter war with Miss Universe without shooting himself in the foot,\u201d Kaine said, referring to Trump\u2019s rants against Alicia Machado, a beauty queen whom he called \u201cMiss Piggy\u201d when she gained weight after winning her crown.<\/p>\n
The two men repeatedly talked over each over as they clashed about Trump\u2019s failure to release his tax records, social security, how to handle an aggressive Russia, and the prospect of mounting debt, forcing moderator Elaine Quijano to intervene.<\/p>\n
\u201cSenator Kaine could not stop interrupting Governor Pence,\u201d Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told CBS news after the debate. \u201cIt was really unhinged and really unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaine, 58, and Pence, 57, are about 10 years younger than the presidential nominees. They each have sons serving in the US military, and they are seen as more religious than Clinton and Trump.<\/p>\n
Trump has suffered from what has been seen as a mediocre performance in his first debate with Clinton, revelations of a $916 million loss in 1995 that may have meant he paid no taxes for several years and criticism of his demeaning treatment of Machado.<\/p>\n
Pence, who spent a dozen years in Congress, is known for his discipline. He prepared intensively for the debate, unlike Trump, who did little to practice for his September 26 encounter with Clinton.<\/p>\n
Trump, who live tweeted throughout the political showdown, posted that \u201cMike Pence won big. We should all be proud of Mike!\u201d<\/p>\n
Clinton countered on Twitter that she was \u201cLucky to have a partner like @timkaine who stood up for our shared vision tonight-instead of trying to deny it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Strike\u2019 Assad regime –<\/p>\n
Pence stressed that a Trump administration would want the United States to \u201cuse military force to strike the targets of the Assad regime\u201d if Russia continues its involvement in \u201cthis barbaric attack on Aleppo.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Republican clearly distanced himself from Trump\u2019s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, hailing the US system as \u201csuperior to the crony corrupt cabal system in Russia in every way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaine hammered away though, insisting that \u201cDonald Trump, again and again, has praised Vladimir Putin and it\u2019s clear that he has business dealings with Russian oligarchs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump has business dealings with Russia that he refuses to disclose,\u201d while \u201cHillary Clinton has gone toe to toe with Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pence assailed Clinton while pushing a larger theme of change-something many Americans say they want-including his call for \u201crepealing Obamacare lock, stock and barrel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the first presidential debate, support for Clinton has risen to 44.3 percent against 40.6 percent for Trump, according to an average of recent national polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.<\/p>\n
A second round of presidential debates is set for Sunday. The format will be a bit different, with candidates fielding questions put to them by people in the audience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The two candidates for US vice president launched bitter attacks on the reputations and policies of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Tuesday during a fiery debate five weeks from Election Day. Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence sought to highlight their capabilities as the men who could be a heartbeat away from the presidency, but essentially they were on stage fighting a proxy war for their running mates scrapping for every vote on November 8. Polls show Clinton gaining in the wake of a punishing week for her Republican<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2760,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2759"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2762,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions\/2762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}