Welcome to McClatchy’s Voter Survival Guide, an interactive presentation of daily events from one of the strangest presidential campaigns in modern history.
Tim Kaine was annoying.
The Democratic vice presidential candidate spent the first half hour of Tuesday’s debate interrupting Mike Pence and making it hard for anyone to keep track of what was going on.
While Pence may have helped his own career with a reserved and tempered performance, Kaine landed a few shots that will help his running mate in the coming weeks.
“Donald Trump and I would never support legislation that punished women who made the heartbreaking choice to end a pregnancy,” Pence said towards the end of the debate.
“Then why did Donald Trump say that?” Kaine replied..
“Well, look, it's -- look, he's not a polished politician like you and Hillary Clinton,” Pence said.
That exchange was mirrored throughout the night, as Kaine launched annoying but largely factual attacks against Trump that Pence denied.
Trump live-Tweeted the debate, and compared Kaine to a Batman villain.
A supposed Wikileaks bombshell failed to yield an October surprise against Hillary Clinton.
“There have been a lot of misquotes,” Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said. Among the rumors: “I’m going to destroy Hillary Clinton, or harm Hillary Clinton, or that I don’t like Hillary Clinton. That’s not true.”
The organization announced that it will release 1 million documents over the next 10 weeks, some of which will deal with the U.S. elections.
That wasn’t enough for conservative radio host Alex Jones, who said “Julian Assange trolling the world is Hillary’s October surprise.”
The polls open nationally in 33 days. Let’s get started.
Debate of the dads doesn’t make for great TV
Tim Kaine and Mike Pence are the opposite of Trump and Hillary Clinton. Both are mild-mannered and not well-known by the national electorate.
On Tuesday, both had their moment in the sun, but most viewers likely changed the channel after 10 minutes of Kaine’s constant interruptions.
“It was a better night for Pence than it was the Trump-Pence campaign,” said University of Michigan debate coach Aaron Kall.
It was a better night for Pence than it was the Trump-Pence campaign.
University of Michigan debate coach Aaron Kall
Pence came off as the more likable of the two candidates, but voters won’t base their ballot on the second person on the ticket in November.
And that’s where Kaine wins the debate. He sounded like a cable TV surrogate instead of a presidential candidate. But he repeatedly attacked Pence over issues with Trump and Pence constantly responded with a shake of the head.
“The long-term benefit probably goes to Tim Kaine,” said Quentin Kidd, director of the Judy Ford Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University.
The long-term benefit probably goes to Tim Kaine.
Virginia public policy expert Quentin Kidd
“Over the next several days you will have reporters asking the Trump campaign, ‘Do you agree that Trump never said that?’ I don’t think that’s the kind of thing that benefits the campaign over the long run.”
Trump live tweets the debate
Donald Trump, and a pack of advisers, huddled somewhere in Nevada to send off a barrage of tweets touting Pence and his performance during Tuesday’s debate.