Pence and Harris earn faint praise for being less dishonest than Trump in their debate

Daniel Dale fact-checks Pence and Harris

(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/CNN)

published 8 October 2020

"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."

"I think the whopper of the night was Vice President Pence's claim that they always tell the truth," Daniel Dale said on CNN. "I mean, it's vague, but this was on the subject of the pandemic. ... It's not a specific policy claim or something, but that, to me, was egregious."

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Vice presidential fact check: Daniel Dale selects his lie of the night - YouTube

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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."

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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.