Pence and Harris earn faint praise for being less dishonest than Trump in their debate
"In the vice presidential debate, Vice President Pence took a number of flimsy claims out of the Trump playbook, although he often delivered them more deftly," The Washington Post fact-checkers wrote after Wednesday night's debate. "Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) also stretched the truth at times." Pence was certainly "more buttoned-up on the stage than his boss," The Associated Press adds, but he "nevertheless echoed many of President Donald Trump’s falsehoods."
"Pence muddied the reality on the pandemic, asserted Trump respects the science on climate change when actually the president mocks it, overstated the threat of voting fraud, and misrepresented the Russia investigation in the Salt Lake City debate," AP said. 'Harris got tangled in tax policy at one point and misleadingly suggested that Trump branded the coronavirus a hoax."
Article continues belowThe Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Factually, the debate "was imperfect, but it was conventional political spin and dishonesty, rather than just the avalanche of lies we get regularly from President Trump," Dale concluded. "Vice President Pence made a number of significant false claims, including when he said that 'we always tell the truth' on the pandemic — that itself is just not true. Sen. Harris herself made some false and misleading claims, certainly was not perfect. But for me, selfishly, it was a little bit at least a chance to take a breath after dealing with Trump for four or five years."
