The GOP prematurely declared Mike Pence the winner of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate, hours before it even started.
A post titled “Who Won the Vice Presidential Debate” appeared on the Republican National Committee’s website on Tuesday afternoon, claiming that Donald Trump’s running mate Mike Pence was the “clear winner” before the debate had begun.
The post was quickly removed, but an archived version can be seen here. The original link now redirects to an error page mocking Hillary Clinton.
“The other clear winner from tonight’s debate was Donald Trump,” the post read. “His running mate perfectly shared Trump’s vision to make America great again and that message is resonating with Americans all across the country.”
Other posts that appeared on the site concerning the debate between Pence and Democrat Tim Kaine included “5 Questions Tim Kaine Was NOT Asked,” “10 Things Voters Are Saying About the Debate” and “It’s Clear Who Lost the VP Debate, Hillary Clinton.” All have since been pulled down.
No one expected the debate to be particularly lively, but come on, GOP. Nothing is this predictable. Then again, it isn’t like Republicans are going to call Kaine the winner. Or like Democrats would ever call it for Pence.
Twitter users roundly mocked the GOP for the error:
https://twitter.com/Brazil201/status/783446151034990594
https://twitter.com/gawaragcha/status/783447898298003456
https://twitter.com/GossiTheDog/status/783451548496105472
In the spirit of the GOP site launching a "Who Won the VP Debate" page, we are declaring that our candidate Tim Kaine won the debate bigly
— The Democrat Machine (@DemocratMachine) October 4, 2016
How does the GOP know who won the debate before the Drudge online poll has even been released?? https://t.co/VI922SRK4N
— Justin Taylor (@between2worlds) October 4, 2016
View the now-unpublished GOP post below.
