Mike Pence and Tim Kaine spar over Clinton and Trump foundations at VP debate

Tim Kaine and Mike Pence discuss family foundations

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) launched a broadside against the Clinton Foundation at Tuesday night's vice presidential debate, alleging that Bill and Hillary Clinton set up their charitable foundation to get around the ban on foreign contributions to U.S. political campaigns. "You asked the trustworthy question in the beginning," he told moderator Elaine Quijano. "The reason people don't trust Hillary Clinton is because they're looking at the pay-to-play politics that she operated at the Clinton Foundation, through a private server, while she's secretary of state, and they're saying enough is enough." Sen. Tim Kaine (D) was up for the challenge.

"I am glad to talk about the foundation," he said. "The Clinton Foundation is one of the highest-rated foundations in the world. It provides AIDS drugs to about 11 million people. It helps Americans deal with opioid overdoses. It gets higher rankings for its charity than the American Red Cross." The State Department did an investigation, he added, and found that Clinton had acted in all cases in the best interests of America. "So the foundation does good work, and Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, acted in the interests of the United States," Kaine said. He compared that to the Trump Organization, which he called "an octopus-like organization with tentacles all over the world whose conflicts of interest could only be known if Donald Trump would release his tax returns," and the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which was fined for contributing to a political campaign, apparently by mistake.

It was one of the calmer exchanges of the debate.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.