Kaine Lost The Battle But Won The War

On Tuesday, Tim Kaine and Mike Pence battled it out in the one and only vice presidential debate of the 2016 election. While Kaine came off as aggressive and uncomfortable, Pence appeared cool and collected, and thus was considered the winner by many pundits and early polls. But in the long run, Kaine might come out the victor, especially when one considers the new political ad the Clinton camp released Wednesday morning.

Even though Kaine interrupted his competitor a cringeworthy 70-plus times, according to Business Insider, he was ultimately able to back Pence into a corner over some of the most controversial things Donald Trump has said during his presidential run. As a result, during the debate, Pence denied that Trump ever said certain egregious things, such as a call for a "deportation force." While the Indiana governor came off strong in the moment, in the aftermath, it was not an ideal move for the Trump-Pence campaign, as shown by this ad.

The video starts off with some tongue-in-cheek text: "At the VP debate, Mike Pence seemed to have discovered he was Donald Trump's running mate ... he had a hard time with the news." It shows how Kaine goes on to bring up how both Trump and Pence spoke positively of Russian president Vladimir Putin, which Pence flatly denied. "Oh, that's nonsense," said Pence when Kaine mentioned how Trump didn't know Russia had invaded Crimea — a major foreign policy gaffe from the presidential hopeful during an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

The ad also shows how the Democratic VP hopeful went on to call out Trump for promising a "deportation force," which could be responsible for displacing an estimated 16 million people. Pence called this claim "nonsense," but the new Clinton ad reminds us that "deportation force" were indeed Trump's words. Remember when Trump told Chris Matthews on MSNBC that a woman should be punished if she has an abortion? So do I. But Pence apparently doesn't, and he told the entire nation as much.

In an especially dangerous denial, Pence assured the world that his candidate never said it'd be better if nations like Saudi Arabia and Japan had nuclear weapons — which Trump did in fact say. Pence even refused to acknowledge a cornerstone of the Trump campaign, "extreme vetting" — a stance that's so important to Trump that it's even explicitly outlined on his own website.

At the end of the day, Pence actually made Clinton's job much easier — because from there, all Clinton had to do was roll the tapes and let the Republican leaders speak for themselves. And so she did.