Seth Meyers recaps the Pence-Kaine VP debate, focusing on the awkward Trump-Pence disconnect

Seth Meyers recaps VP debate — (Image credit: Late Night)

Tuesday night was the sole vice-presidential debate between Gov. Mike Pence (R) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D), "and while Kaine seemed to channel Donald Trump in the number of times he interrupted, Pence seemed to act like Donald Trump wasn't even his running mate," Seth Meyers said in his Late Show debate recap Wednesday night. Meyers compared Kaine to an overprotective father and Pence to a vindictive vice principal, made cruel jokes about Kaine's harmonica playing, ridiculed Donald Trump's live-tweeting of the debate — though "according to CNN, he wasn't allowed to tweet without his handlers surrounding him," Meyers noted — and mocked Kaine's "terrible zingers."

Pence made sure to test out the microphone before the debate, a point Meyers apparently only brought up so he could show Michelle Obama's burn of Trump's own microphone complaints. "Check out how good Michelle Obama's burn game is right now," Meyers said. "Not only did she not say Trump's name, she burned him with one hand."

Meyers spent the last part of his "closer look" focused on Pence, starting with his "absurd insistence" that Hillary Clinton's campaign is the one driven by insults. "Donald Trump drops so many insults it's like Don Rickles and Triumph had a baby who had a Twitter account," he said. Meyers also noted the disconnect between what Pence said about Trump and what Trump has said. "Pence in this debate was like a candidate from an alternate universe where his running mate wasn't Donald Trump," he argued. "As much as Pence lied about Trump's record, pundits declared him the winner last night on style. His calm demeanor got glowing reviews, specifically in comparison to Donald Trump's terrible debate performance — and apparently that made Trump very jealous." Meyers spent the last minute flat-out trolling Trump about Pence's superior performance, and you can watch below. Peter Weber

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

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.