 The vice presidential debate took place and I know immediately who won as soon as it was over The fly bias against minorities Is is a great insult To the men and women who serve in law enforcement, and I want everyone to know who puts on the uniform of law enforcement every day President Trump and I stand with you and it is remarkable that Now while we're zoomed in on Mike Pence, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that his eye is a little bit more red than usual Now some people were tweeting that COVID-19 actually one of the symptoms is pink eye I don't know if that's true But what I do know is that it was a little bit weird just for optics purposes I know that he can't control this but it made him look more evil Then I think he wanted to appear So overall, let's let's go ahead and get to some substance This debate was largely Forgettable it was more watchable infinitely more watchable than the first presidential debate But I think largely it was forgettable and it's not going to change the trajectory of this race Now going into this debate Mike Pence needed a really breakout performance He did not get that and I think overall, you know, if you compare both of their performances Kamala Harris definitely won to me now. This isn't necessarily a blowout win I think that she won but it wasn't necessarily her best performance ever I think that her performance at that first Democratic debate that was the best debate performance that she's ever given at this debate You can tell that she came prepared. She brought her a game, but I think that there were a couple of moments Where you know, she missed opportunities to really, you know put Mike Pence on The offensive and you know, it really was fresh waiting to watch this now coming into this She really came out swinging and she took shots at Mike Pence and Donald Trump for their incompetence and mishandling COVID-19 and she had the perfect quips to respond to him when he said look you guys want to mandate everything such as masks Why don't we trust the American people? She responded by saying Why don't we trust the American people by telling them the truth then citing the fact that this administration Lied about the severity of COVID-19 when they knew back in January. That was a really strong point Mike Pence in an attempt to defend himself thought it was a good idea to bring up swine flu Which did not affect as many people in the way that COVID is affecting people. I mean Trump did this too I don't know why they think this is a good Idea because Obama handled that competently you can say it was severe But the economy didn't crash as a result of swine flu 210,000 Americans did not die as a result of swine flu So every time they bring up swine flu as a gotcha on Joe Biden and Obama It reminds everyone that Obama and Biden are much more competent than they are So I don't know what they're thinking and bringing this up now in a way to kind of pivot and divert attention away From him and Donald Trump. He brought up the fact that their COVID-19 action plan looks similar to theirs, and then he attacked Joe Biden for plagiarism Come on man, and he's correct that plagiarism has previously ended Joe Biden's presidential runs However, you're bringing this up in the context of COVID-19 and your failure which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths He really needed to find some way To project some level of competence because Donald Trump has failed on every single front And he just he needed to reassure the American people that there's at least one grown-up in this administration That's gonna take responsibility and has a plan of action. He did not do that and For that reason alone, even if common this performance wasn't great I think that Mike Pence lost this debate now. I will say he is a better debater than Donald Trump I don't think that he turned off as many people as Donald Trump did, but I will say maybe it's the case that people liked Mike Pence's performance if they're traditionally conservative, but they're turned off by Donald Trump's belligerence and his antics Maybe but he came off as so fake and smarmy that I I don't know How this is going to sit well with people. This is a little bit more subjective So, you know, I could be imposing my own bias here in this situation But to me it was it was really really difficult to listen to him He was completely insufferable and there were a few moments where he was let off the hook When he shouldn't have been both by the moderator and Kamala Harris. So first of all, let's be clear He did not state that he believes in man-made climate change he denied anthropogenic climate change He said look the climate is changing and then he went on to Spouse more right-wing talking points in 2020 after we just witnessed wildfires sweep the West Coast You are going to deny climate change. I Mean you just are tone deaf and you don't know how to read the room You're too far in that right wing bubble on top of that towards the end of the debate And we're gonna talk about this in a separate segment I don't know if you missed it, but when he was asked whether or not he Would commit to a peaceful transfer of power or what he would do with Trump didn't commit to a peaceful transfer of power rather He did not answer the question. He talked about how oh well for the last couple of years Democrats didn't want to accept the results of the election. Yeah, but that's a little bit different Hillary Clinton being bitter and Incefrable that's difference, you know the her blaming everyone is different than an incumbent president Refusing to step down when they have power. That's a very different situation. He didn't answer that question And while we're on the subject of Mike Pence not answering questions I can't recall a time where he answered a single question like every single question He dodged and it was so slimy and obvious that I was screaming at my TV hoping that Kamala Harris would call him out for it and it was a missed opportunity when he brought up court packing and He tried to get her to give a direct answer And she fumbled right there. She fumbled and she fumbled badly and it was not a very good look the problem with her answer there is that you can tell that she was very Conspicuously trying to dodge the question and when she dodges questions, she doesn't do it as artfully as Mike Pence You know, you can see that she's floundering and she's trying to come up with something to say Whereas Mike Pence already has his dodges and answers to questions Predetermined so it's a little bit more obvious and he kind of pressed her on this and it made it seem as if she wouldn't answer the question now That is just one instance where Kamala Harris explicitly avoided answering a question, but compared that to Mike Pence. He answered Basically no questions. So at that point going forward. I really wanted Kamala Harris to point out He didn't answer the question You don't have to interrupt him to do that But when you get your time to speak you can say He didn't answer the question America I hope you're paying attention He did not give you a clear answer because that's something that needs to be addressed because the average viewer who's just kind of watching listening in the background, maybe they're not going to Really consciously acknowledge that it may be subconscious So you want that to be at the forefront of their minds that this guy is a weasel if they can't already see it for themselves You want to point that out make it easy for them connect the dots for them So that was a missed opportunity although Kamala Harris was decisive She seemed like she was a grown-up on top of that when Mike Pence attempted to interrupt her You know, she shut him down and that was a really great because if there's anything that Americans like it is strength It is someone who is not afraid to stand up to another individual I think that's gonna play well for her and honestly all of the facial reactions that she was making I Think that was a good look because like I was making those same facial reactions because the things that Mike Pence were saying were deeply unpopular deeply unpopular and yet somehow the debate was still taking place on His terms on right-wing terms when this is a far right individual like he's talking about how extreme the Democrats are and how Liberal Kamala Harris is he even said that she's more liberal than Bernie Sanders, which is a joke But why are we allowing the debate to take place on the terms of this right-wing ghoul when he brings up that you Want to ban fracking? Don't just repeat. Oh, no, of course. Joe would never want to ban fracking We know that that's the policy and he doesn't support banning fracking His policy is basically we're gonna ran it in somewhat and not grant as many permits to frackers But it's still not great So like you don't want to lean into something that's unpopular and she even tweeted out on Twitter Her campaign team said we will not ban fracking stop running away from things like this now This brings me to my biggest gripe with Kamala Harris it was when she tried to walk a fine line between Sanctuism and you know trying not to Turn off the left-wing supporters that are reluctantly supporting Joe Biden now if you watched my pre-debate preview I Brought up a situation wherein Kamala Harris could have face planted So my you know what came to mind when I was bringing this up was Medicare for all because I was expecting my pens to bring Medicare for all and say well look you support socialized medicine and then when she says no he can then point out that she supported it in the Primaries and her and Joe Biden actually went at it in the primaries over their disagreement when it comes to Medicare for all now We know that she doesn't support Medicare for all But what I said was that her strategy should be to either you know Swipe that aside and just attack go on the offensive and say your administration supports a lawsuit that would overturn the affordable Care Act, which means that millions of people will lose protections Currently if they have pre-existing conditions or she can not run away from it She can say look I don't necessarily support Bernie's iteration of Medicare for all But I do support moving towards universal health care system and this is a genuine disagreement between me and Joe Biden, but this is something that we're willing to debate. It seems like the American people is on our side So we're gonna work it out Now that didn't happen the Medicare for all disaster scenario did not come to fruition although a similar situation came up and It basically played out exactly as I expected the Medicare for all situation to play out the Green New Deal This was bad So Mike Pence brought up how she supports the Green New Deal In fact, she was one of the first co-sponsors in the Senate to support the Green New Deal and And she ran away from it now. She didn't handle it as poorly as I feared but it still wasn't a good look because climate change is a very serious issue and The Green New Deal is a very popular policy. So when you are Debating someone who doesn't even believe that anthropogenic climate change is a thing You in no way Have to grant him anything in this conversation. You do not have to debate on his terms He is false on every single level when it comes to the issue of climate change And so the only thing that you need to do when it comes to climate change is shame Mike Pence for not even believing in climate change for not believing the science but I mean she kind of ran away from you know The popular thing which is what I expected but it's still disappointing. However, you know even having said that I don't want to make it seem as if my overall impression of Kamala Harris was negative because I think she performed really well I think she did a good job at really holding her ground and Mike Pence kind of talked himself into a corner on numerous occasions and fell into the same traps that Trump did even if he did successfully lay some right-wing traps for Kamala Harris that she walked right into I mean he himself, you know, he dug a hole for himself So literally on a national debate stage claimed that systemic racism is not a thing and he attacked Kamala Harris and Joe Biden for saying That systemic racism is real, but what does he do minutes later? He disproves his own argument by saying well when you were attorney general in California Black Americans were disproportionately locked up for low-level drug crimes What do we call that Mike Pence? What do we call a system that disproportionately targets one group of people? So he does this and he looks foolish and I mean if you do one thing You say one thing at the beginning of the debate and then you contradict yourself towards the end of the debate That may not be as bad, but it stings when you contradict yourself within like five minutes and Donald Trump did the same thing. You know he Shamed Joe Biden for the 1994 crime bill which suggests that he's too tough on crime and then minutes later He's saying you won't even say the words law and order So which is it? Is he too tough on crime or not tough enough on crime? And this is a problem with the Trump administration they attack Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and end up inadvertently taking Different sides on the same issue and it makes them look foolish and furthermore when Mike Pence was asked About whether or not justice was served in the Breonna Taylor case that long pause right there It felt like it was an eternity before he basically Said yes, I trust our justice system No, that is not a good answer because Trump has not showed even a modicum of sympathy for the Black Lives Matter movement and When you have a majority of Americans according to one poll say that Protesters were justified in burning down a Minneapolis police station If you want to win you've got at least show that you have a little bit of a clue and Mike Pence Didn't even answer an easy question, right? So he pivots away from the Breonna Taylor question and he goes into rioting and looting You were asked about Breonna Taylor and you talk about rioting and looting So what you just admitted to the American people unwittingly is that violence against inanimate objects private property is more egregious to you than violence against Black people Now you know why you are struggling with the Black vote Because of things like this you have not a single clue and you're unwilling to listen You condemn condemn condemn, but you never ask why people are in the streets Why they're protesting maybe it's the case that they have legitimate grievances that you are refusing to address so overall I think that Kamala Harris won this debate. Was it a blowout? No, not necessarily, but you know comparing this to the first presidential debate I think that Her victory was more clear than Joe Biden's victory because I don't necessarily believe that Joe Biden had a good performance at that debate but I think that Trump ended up losing that debate on his own because he wouldn't shut up and he ended up turning a lot of people off and In this instance, I think that Kamala Harris actually put in work and she won that debate now A lot of people widely believed that Mike Pence beat Tim Kaine in the 2016 debate But this time I just I don't see it. I will say that Mike Pence is probably More skilled than other Republicans at debating If you take into account the tactics that he uses to get someone on the offensive like the moment when he basically Got Kamala Harris to fumble when it comes to answering the question as to whether or not they'd pack the court That was a good tactical move. However Just him refusing to answer any questions his overall demeanor and smugness the style I don't know if what he's offering is going to resonate with people I just don't and by the way, I think that when it comes to the court packing We should definitely pack the court because we don't have a choice We can't be going backwards in history and refighting these battles that we already won But I don't I don't know strategically if it would be who Kamala Harris to Admit this that they want to pack the court because on one hand and David Packman made this point He says that you know if Joe Biden says we're not gonna pack the Supreme Court You turn off the left who want you to pack the Supreme Court and some centrists to be fair But on another hand if you say we are going to pack the Supreme Court You may fire up your own base, but also fire up the Republican base And I think they're already fired up because they want to see Amy Coney Barrett confirmed, but you know if you keep your cards close to your chest in this instance I think that you might end up being better off. I don't think that they're gonna pack the court I am hoping so but I'm not getting my hopes too high. I'm not gonna hold my breath but I mean when it comes to this issue in general Mike Pence he argues from a position and assumes that everyone is a right winger like he called out Kamala Harris because Brett Kavanaugh was apparently treated so poorly He was credibly accused of rape second of all the reason why she was questioning whether or not His religiosity was a factor in his judicial interpretation Is because Knights of Columbus the organization with which he is a part of Is a homophobic an openly homophobic organization So if that influences him and the way that he interprets the constitution I think that that's something that you have to try to Figure out. In fact, I'd argue it's Kamala's responsibility being on the Senate judiciary committee to figure out whether or not this individual will be biased Against a portion of the population. So Mike Pence, you know, he makes this argument Not acknowledging that the overwhelming majority of Americans now support marriage equality, right? And they don't believe that someone's religiosity Is going to justify, you know, bigotry against a portion of the population But he just like he assumes that everyone's conservative and he argues passionately from that point and he kind of like ropes people in Into uh, accepting this notion That most people are right wingers when in actuality just because the overton window is so far to the right That doesn't mean that most Americans are conservative. Even if they self identify as conservative They support progressive policies. Look at the Green New Deal. Medicare for all raising the minimum wage Americans are with us Not the right So I think that, you know, going forward Democrats need to acknowledges this and, you know, play offense more And not let Republicans, you know, back them into defending themselves when they're the ones who should be speaking up For their records, but I mean look at the end of the day I don't want to spend too much time on this debate because I don't think it's going to change the trajectory of this race I think that Kamala Harris won for two reasons. First and foremost, I think her performance was uh, was excellent Right, it wasn't perfect. It was probably A minus wasn't an a plus, but still it was really good And uh, second of all the reason why I think she won is because Mike Pence I mean the expectations were really high He needed a blowout performance in order to even start to change The trajectory of this election in him and Donald Trump's favor And he didn't do that. He failed. He couldn't adequately defend himself Which is what Americans are most concerned with right now. Why? COVID-19 is ravaging the country and why isn't this administration doing more and he didn't uh answer for that and Because of that, I think that Kamala Harris ultimately won But I don't think this is going to lead to a boost for Joe Biden because it wasn't as Striking, you know when when you watch that first presidential debate like the takeaway is you just feel gross, right? Like you almost have this visceral reaction seeing Donald Trump so unhinged and argumentative and just Constantly talking over Joe Biden at that debate, but in this debate it was relatively normal So, you know, I don't think it's going to further galvanize either side But I don't think it's you know, uh going to necessarily help at all when it comes to Saving the titanic that is you know the trump 2020 campaign. So they're losing time They've got to turn this around quick and this debate did not help them with that