VP Debate: 5 Moments That Stood Out When Tim Kaine And Mike Pence Weren’t Talking Over Each Other

The vice presidential debate between Tim Kaine and Mike Pence often sounded more like two third-graders arguing over the lunch table than it did two career politicians discussing some of the toughest issues facing America.

But among the cross-talk, pre-prepared jabs and pleas from moderator Elaine Quijano to stay on topic, there were a few exchanges that gave Americans a window into the policy of two men who were largely unknowns to the public before Tuesday night.

These five moments stood out to us.

Tax returns

Pence struggled to explain why Donald Trump has not released his tax returns, an issue that has dogged Trump's campaign from the start.

The campaign has all but confirmed that the three pages from 1995 leaked to the New York Times — which show a loss of more than $900 million and suggest he may not pay federal income tax — are real, and Pence offered no sort of denial to that end.

Kaine, though, brought a new line of attack to the issue: referencing Trump’s February 2015 promise to release them if he were to run for president.

“Donald Trump must give the American public's tax returns to show that he is qualified to be president,” Kaine said. “And he is breaking his promise.”

Policing

Pence began the discussion waxing poetic about his uncle, a former Chicago cop, and slammed Hillary Clinton and Kaine’s campaign for supposedly hating on cops.

Kaine hit back by resurfacing the shooting death of Philando Castile, who was pulled over as part of a traffic stop in Minnesota and died still sitting behind the wheel.

The candidates agreed that community policing is an effective tactic, but the exchange illustrated the differences in how the two campaigns approach the issue.

Insults

In one of Pence’s weaker moments, he accused Clinton and Kaine of running a “campaign of insults.”

As Kaine rattled off a laundry list of insults Trump himself has used on the campaign trail, Pence shook his head as if none of them happened. Then Pence called them “small potatoes” compared to Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment.

Immigration

After the first presidential debate curiously left out any talk of immigration, Pence and Kaine had one of their most heated exchanges on immigration and Trump’s plan to ban Muslim immigrants from America.

Kaine hit on a recent appellate court ruling that deemed Pence’s plan to block Syrian refugees was discriminatory.

“Hillary and I will do immigration enforcement and vet refugees based on whether they are dangerous or not, not discriminating based on which country you are from,” Kaine said.

Pence defended his stance by citing the attacks on Paris.

“After two Syrian refugees were involved in the attack in Paris that is called ‘Paris' 9/11,’ you bet I suspended that program,” Pence said. “I stand by that decision. If I am vice president, we're going to put the safety of the American people first.”

Russia

Perhaps the most combative moment of the debate came when the discussion on Syria spiraled into a referendum on Trump’s controversial positions on Russia.

Pence struck a different tone than Trump — who regularly calls Putin a stronger leader than President Obama.

“Let me be clear on this Russians thing. What we are dealing with is — there is an old proverb that says the Russian bear never dies, but hibernates,” Pence explained.

Images: Tim Kaine, via Department of Education; Mike Pence, via Gage Skidmore, Flickr, used under Creative Commons