Opinion: Mike Pence tried to defend the indefensible Donald Trump. He failed

To the editor: Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the Republican vice presidential nominee, certainly brings a different and more sane demeanor to the campaign than his running mate atop the ticket, Donald Trump. (“Mike Pence and Tim Kaine clash in fiery vice presidential debate,” and “VP debate scorecard: Our judges unanimously give the debate to Pence, but the decision was close,” Oct. 4)

But when Sen. Tim Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, brought up many of the outrageous comments Trump has made on the campaign trail, Pence just shook his head or denied Trump ever said them. I imagine that he was trying to say that Trump didn’t really mean those things. If that’s true, then how can we trust anything that Trump says?

Pence also kept blaming Kaine and his running mate Hillary Clinton for negative campaigning. Excuse me, but Trump is the person who set the tone of this campaign. He has been name-calling, flinging insults and telling lies since the beginning. Remember the primaries? He had a demeaning name for several of the Republicans running against him.

Pence may bring some positive qualities to the Republican ticket but he’s not the one who would be sitting in the Oval Office.

Joanna Ryder, Hermosa Beach

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To the editor: While some voters may consider Kaine the winner (since Pence had to answer for the indefensible statements made by Trump), he made two mistakes that might affect voters.

First, Kaine rudely interrupted Pence multiple times. Second, Kaine did not stay on point, as he would respond to a question on just about any topic with a personal attack on Trump.

One monumental mistake by Pence was failure to respond to Kaine claiming the deal over Iran’s nuclear program as a triumph for former Secretary of State Clinton. Certainly, this deal will go down in history as a monumental blunder, allowing funding of the terrorism-supporting Iranian regime and ultimately allowing that country to develop nuclear weapons.

Kaine was a pit bull, while Pence was a gentleman.

Nelson Marans, New York

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To the editor: The conclusion by your political writers that Pence won the debate was interesting and insightful. Still, I do not agree, and I doubt that many, if any, Clinton supporters do.

Pence was undeniably smooth, unflappable and articulate. But I also found him to be smarmy, evasive and transparently phony, except when he ardently expressed his religiously based objection to a woman’s right to choose, then deftly side-stepped Kaine’s pointed question as to why he didn’t trust women to make that decision for themselves.

M.L. Goodman, Long Beach

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To the editor: Kaine or Pence for president or even on the same ticket as president and vice president.

John McKinney, Cerritos

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