Ida Astute/ABCNews(NEW YORK) — Hillary Clinton and her team are “desperate to clean up Tim Kaine’s performance” in Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Thursday on ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Conway’s comments come after Kaine, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, admitted to a crowd of supporters Wednesday that he got “dinged a little bit” for interrupting too much during the “feisty” debate.
Kaine described his Republican rival, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, as a “pretty good debater.” But the Virginia senator said Pence missed an opportunity to defend his running mate.
“He’s pretty smooth but there is one thing he can’t do, and that is defend Donald Trump on anything,” Kaine said at a rally in Philadelphia Wednesday.
His running mate, Hillary Clinton, echoed his attacks on Pence and Trump.
“I thought Tim did a great job and every time he tried to push Mike Pence to defend what Donald Trump has said and done, Pence just bobbed and weaved and tried to get out of the way because, after all, trying to defend Donald Trump is an impossible task,” the Democratic presidential nominee said at a fundraiser in Washington, D.C., Wednesday night.
Trump’s campaign manager, however, said that’s not the case.
“We totally disagree,” Conway told GMA Thursday morning. “I understand why they’re desperate to clean up Tim Kaine’s performance.”
During Tuesday night’s debate, Kaine interrupted the Republican vice presidential nominee 70 times, according to an ABC News analysis. Pence interrupted Kaine 40 times.
Conway called Pence’s performance “spectacular” and said Trump’s campaign was “really happy” with the outcome. She dismissed any notion that the Indiana governor does not fully back his running mate.
“The fact that he’s on the ticket very proudly tells you all you need to know about how he feels about Donald Trump,” Conway said.
After their first presidential debate last week, Trump and Clinton will meet again in a town-hall style debate Sunday night. Conway said the debate’s setup is something with which the Republican presidential nominee is already familiar.
“It’s a comfortable format,” she said on GMA.
“He’s the one out there at these rallies and small settings every single day.”
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