Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) went after Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Hillary Clinton for spouting “pre-done lines” during the vice presidential debate Tuesday night, but the Trump campaign seemed to have their own line prepared to critique Kaine’s performance.
In interview after interview, Trump surrogates referred to the Democratic vice presidential nominee’s mixed performance as “unhinged.”
“The Clinton campaign likes to throw around words like sexism and unhinged. They’ve got to be regretting words like that on a night like tonight when Tim Kaine looked like both,” campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on Fox News’ “The Kelly File” shortly after the debate wrapped.
Conway repeated the criticism shortly later in an interview with Fox’s Neil Cavuto, calling Kaine’s interruptions “unhinged.”
Trump surrogates continued to throw the word around in post-debate analysis on Wednesday morning.
Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) went on CNN’s “New Day” to praise Pence’s “calm and cool” performance, critiquing Kaine for talking over his opponent.
“Tim Kaine looked unhinged,” Collins declared.
When Trump’s senior communications advisor, Jason Miller, came on the “New Day” set with the same criticism less than an hour later, Camerota asked straight up if it was a scripted line.
“I think you’re seeing the Clinton-Kaine campaign completely unhinged this morning,” Miller said.
“This sounds like a talking point,” Camerota replied. “I heard that that word unhinged from another one of the surrogates. What do you mean unhinged?”
“I think the 70-plus interruptions from Senator Kaine went to that. And Senator Kaine had a very tough time defending their ideas.”
While campaigns routinely instruct their supporters on how to publicly push their platform or deflect opponents’ attacks, they’re not supposed to make it obvious that they’re spinning voters.
Last week, the Trump campaign’s blatant effort to distract from the Clinton campaign’s attacks over his derogatory comments about women was laid bare when CNN obtained an official memo outlining lines for Trump surrogates to use. Supporters were instructed to bring up Bill Clinton’s sex scandals instead, which they dutifully did in countless cable news interviews.
