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Vice Presidential debate recap

The vice presidential nominees debated their plans for national security and the economy Tuesday night, often arguing over each other and CBS moderator Elaine Quijano.

The debate, which took place at Longwood University in Virginia, opened with Republican nominee Mike Pence criticizing Democratic nominee Tim Kaine’s time as governor of Virginia.

Pence, the current governor of Indiana, claimed that Virginia — under Kaine’s administration — doubled its unemployment rate as a result of Kaine’s economic policies.

However, the Washington Post fact checker noted that during the time Kaine was governor, the national economy was experiencing a recession and that Virginia actually outperformed the national average in terms of GDP growth.

The debate quickly turned to the recently leaked 1995 tax returns of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Pence defended his running mate, saying Trump is “a businessman, not a career politician.”

Kaine claimed that Pence had to disclose his tax returns to Trump prior to being chosen as his running mate; Kaine then said that Trump should have to release his tax returns to show the American public he’s qualified to be president.

When asked by Quijano how each of their economic plans would address the national debt, both candidates ignored the question.

After some prodding, Kaine did finally offer a response.

“The debt explosion on the Trump plan is much, much bigger than on the Clinton side.”

The Washington Post fact checker note that this was a missed opportunity for Kaine, as the Clinton-Kaine plan would increase to about 85 percent of the size of the overall economy while the Trump-Pence plan would increase to around 105 percent of the overall size.

The debate then moved on to matters of domestic security, mainly gun control and immigration.

Kaine acknowledge the rights of gun owners, reminding the crowd that he is a gun owner and supporter of the Second Amendment. However, Kaine then pointed to mass shootings as reasons for implementing stronger gun laws, citing the Virginia Tech shooting that happened while he was governor of Virginia in 2007.

Since then, Kaine said he believes that there needs to be stricter gun regulations and better background checks, to ensure mentally ill people do not have access to such weaponry.

Pence then brought up border security, claiming that Clinton and Kaine “have a plan for open borders.”

However, this was later noted to be an exaggeration, as the Clinton-Kaine campaign have advocated for tighter border security along with expanding pathways to citizenship for undocumented people who are already here.

This debate was the first and only debate for the vice presidential nominees. The next presidential debate will take place Sunday at 6 p.m. and will be aired on CNN.

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