The 2016 vice-presidential debate
8:27 PM
October 4 by Glenn Kessler
Fact Check: Tim Kaine on Clinton’s nuclear agreement
“She worked a deal with the Russians to reduce their chemical weapons stockpile”
–Tim Kaine
Kaine surely meant to say nuclear weapons, but it came out as chemical weapons. Even so, Kaine overstates the impact of the 2011 New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) agreement, which Clinton helped negotiate as Secretary of State.
New START placed tighter limits on deployed strategic weapons, but Russia for the most part was already meeting those targets when the treaty began to be implemented.
The treaty does not restrict either country from stockpiling weapons, nor does it require them to destroy any existing weapons..
The treaty does place tighter limits on these weapons than any past treaty. But Russia was actually already meeting the treaty’s limits, for the most part, when treaty implementation began, and Russia had increased them from 1,537 in February 2011 to 1,796 in September 2016. Also, the treaty does not restrict either country from stockpiling weapons, nor does it require them to destroy any existing weapons.
Russia’s total nuclear warhead arsenal has been on a steady decline, from 40,000, since 1986. During Obama’s presidency, Russia’s nuclear warhead total has hovered around 4,500 since 2012.
8:20 PM
October 4 by Dan Lamothe
Marine sons of Pence and Kaine get an early mention in the debate
Before Tim Kaine and Mike Pence even opened their mouths during the presidential debate Tuesday, their respective Marine sons were acknowledged by moderator Elaine Quijano.
Kaine’s son, Nathaniel, is a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps and recently deployed to Eastern Europe with the service’s Black Sea Rotational Force. Pence’s son, Michael, is a second lieutenant who recently went to flight school in the Florida Panhandle.
In Kaine’s opening remarks, he noted his son’s job and used it to make the point that he thinks Donald Trump is unfit to lead the U.S. military.
“The thought of Donald Trump as commander in chief scares us to death,” he said of his family.
Pence did not mention his son when it was his turn to speak.
8:14 PM
October 4 by Gregory Schneider
Kaine has a good excuse for the weak economy during his time as governor
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence just slammed Sen. Tim Kaine’s record on the economy when he was governor of Virginia. Kaine left the state “$2 billion in the hole,” Pence said. “Unemployment doubled when he was governor.”
It’s true that Virginia’s economy sagged during Kaine’s administration, but at the same time the national economy all but collapsed. The Great Recession was driven across the country by years of reckless lending, a huge real estate bubble and the proliferation of exotic and risky financial instruments. It was at its worst during Kaine’s term of 2006-2010.
The contraction shrank tax revenue and deprived Kaine of the means to achieve many of his priorities, as it did to governors of virtually every state. Kaine has campaigned on the fact that he had to cut $5 billion from Virginia’s budget during that time. Virginia’s constitution requires a balanced budget and Kaine and the Republican-controlled legislature had to make cuts to get there.
Nonetheless, Virginia slightly outperformed the rest of the nation in several economic areas as reflected in statistics from the St. Louis Fed, which used Census and Commerce Department data.
Unemployment always ran better than the national average; Virginia’s jobless rate did more than double, hitting 7.4 percent from a low of 3.2 percent. But the national unemployment rate nearly doubled at that time, and was much higher, hitting 10 percent.
The state’s gross domestic product drew to a standstill in 2008, growing only 0.1 percent over the year before. But the national GDP shrank for both 2008 and 2009, something Virginia’s economy never did. Virginia’s median household income far outpaced the national performance during that time.
Earlier, Post staffers Jim Tankersley and Jeff Guo wrote about a regression analysis to compare Kaine’s economic record as governor to what he might have been expected to do.
READ MORE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/20...
October 4 by Glenn Kessler
Fact Check: Tim Kaine on Clinton’s nuclear agreement
“She worked a deal with the Russians to reduce their chemical weapons stockpile”
–Tim Kaine
Kaine surely meant to say nuclear weapons, but it came out as chemical weapons. Even so, Kaine overstates the impact of the 2011 New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) agreement, which Clinton helped negotiate as Secretary of State.
New START placed tighter limits on deployed strategic weapons, but Russia for the most part was already meeting those targets when the treaty began to be implemented.
The treaty does not restrict either country from stockpiling weapons, nor does it require them to destroy any existing weapons..
The treaty does place tighter limits on these weapons than any past treaty. But Russia was actually already meeting the treaty’s limits, for the most part, when treaty implementation began, and Russia had increased them from 1,537 in February 2011 to 1,796 in September 2016. Also, the treaty does not restrict either country from stockpiling weapons, nor does it require them to destroy any existing weapons.
Russia’s total nuclear warhead arsenal has been on a steady decline, from 40,000, since 1986. During Obama’s presidency, Russia’s nuclear warhead total has hovered around 4,500 since 2012.
8:20 PM
October 4 by Dan Lamothe
Marine sons of Pence and Kaine get an early mention in the debate
Before Tim Kaine and Mike Pence even opened their mouths during the presidential debate Tuesday, their respective Marine sons were acknowledged by moderator Elaine Quijano.
Kaine’s son, Nathaniel, is a first lieutenant in the Marine Corps and recently deployed to Eastern Europe with the service’s Black Sea Rotational Force. Pence’s son, Michael, is a second lieutenant who recently went to flight school in the Florida Panhandle.
In Kaine’s opening remarks, he noted his son’s job and used it to make the point that he thinks Donald Trump is unfit to lead the U.S. military.
“The thought of Donald Trump as commander in chief scares us to death,” he said of his family.
Pence did not mention his son when it was his turn to speak.
8:14 PM
October 4 by Gregory Schneider
Kaine has a good excuse for the weak economy during his time as governor
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence just slammed Sen. Tim Kaine’s record on the economy when he was governor of Virginia. Kaine left the state “$2 billion in the hole,” Pence said. “Unemployment doubled when he was governor.”
It’s true that Virginia’s economy sagged during Kaine’s administration, but at the same time the national economy all but collapsed. The Great Recession was driven across the country by years of reckless lending, a huge real estate bubble and the proliferation of exotic and risky financial instruments. It was at its worst during Kaine’s term of 2006-2010.
The contraction shrank tax revenue and deprived Kaine of the means to achieve many of his priorities, as it did to governors of virtually every state. Kaine has campaigned on the fact that he had to cut $5 billion from Virginia’s budget during that time. Virginia’s constitution requires a balanced budget and Kaine and the Republican-controlled legislature had to make cuts to get there.
Nonetheless, Virginia slightly outperformed the rest of the nation in several economic areas as reflected in statistics from the St. Louis Fed, which used Census and Commerce Department data.
Unemployment always ran better than the national average; Virginia’s jobless rate did more than double, hitting 7.4 percent from a low of 3.2 percent. But the national unemployment rate nearly doubled at that time, and was much higher, hitting 10 percent.
The state’s gross domestic product drew to a standstill in 2008, growing only 0.1 percent over the year before. But the national GDP shrank for both 2008 and 2009, something Virginia’s economy never did. Virginia’s median household income far outpaced the national performance during that time.
Earlier, Post staffers Jim Tankersley and Jeff Guo wrote about a regression analysis to compare Kaine’s economic record as governor to what he might have been expected to do.
READ MORE: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/20...
I'm going to assume the 8th commandment is blacked out in Governor Pence's Bible? His refusal to discuss Trump's own statements thrown back at him was slick, but a poor example of integrity or his public declaration of "Christian family values."
Tim Kaine was running for VP in 2016.
Mike Pence was running for president in 2020.