Washington Free Beacon managing editor Aaron MacLean joined Fox News along with Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha on Wednesday to analyze the vice presidential debate from the prior night.
MacLean said Donald Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, was "effective" during the debate and the edge went to him regarding who won the contest, while Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), Hillary Clinton’s running mate, struggled and went too far with his constant interruptions.
"A lot of people have said Mike Pence is a kind of interpreter of Donald Trump. I think he’s more of a translator," MacLean said. "He takes Donald Trump’s more outlandish statements, especially in the case of immigration, and makes them sound like responsible conservative policy positions with the focus on border security, with a sort of sustained, responsible critique of amnesty."
"Tim Kaine on the other hand, I’m not sure what he’s thinking when he and Hillary get into this full embrace of the Syrian refugee program," MacLean continued. "I suppose this appeals to some elements of their base. Perhaps they are doing that on principal, but when they suggest that the only legitimate position to take is that you welcome all Syrian refugees and that security concerns are basically dismissible, I think that does not play well to critical elements of the electorate at this time around."
In the second segment of MacLean’s appearance, he said Pence won the debate and that Kaine’s frequent interruptions hurt his performance. MacLean also panned Kaine’s strange moment when he interrupted Pence to say he was in Virginia during the 9/11 terror attacks.
"I think the edge went to Pence overall on the national security-defense issue in particular," MacLean said. "The interruptions for Kaine went too far. I think he was trying to replicate a Joe Biden-Paul Ryan dynamic from 2012, but he’s not Joe Biden. And Mike Pence certainly is not Paul Ryan as far as the debating skills and chops are concerned."
"Kaine, in particular, jumped the shark when he interrupted to say that he saw 9/11, too, which was just kind of this ridiculous moment," he added.
"On the foreign policy substance, yeah, I think he got into some of the details, and I think the edge went to Pence. He had an easy case to prosecute, which is that things are not going well under [President] Obama. Kaine has no choice [but] to align Hillary’s record with Obama, as he can’t create any daylight there. Pence made the case and I think he was effective," MacLean concluded.