Mike Pence on Wednesday appeared to answer critics of his vice presidential debate performance who argued he shirked a duty to protect Donald Trump against attacks from his opponent, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).
“Some people think I won, but I will leave that to others,” Pence began at a rally in Harrisonburg, Virginia. “What I can tell you is from where I sat, Donald Trump won the debate.”
The Republican vice presidential nominee also said that Trump had called after the debate to congratulate him on his performance, and that the call “really meant the world to me.”
At Tuesday night’s debate, Pence repeatedly denied that Trump had said things that he in fact had been captured saying either on video or in print.
The statements Pence claimed Trump never made included a promise that he would release his tax returns were he ever to run for president; that he wants to create a “deportation force” to rid the United States of all undocumented immigrants; that he prefers Russian President Vladimir Putin’s leadership to President Obama’s; that NATO is “obsolete;” and that women who get abortions should be punished if the procedure were outlawed.