How the top of the ticket responded to the vice presidential debate

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both paid close attention to their running mates’ vice presidential debate performance Tuesday night. In Nevada Wednesday, Trump told a gathering of pastors he was “very proud” of Pence for winning on both style and substance. 

“He won on the issues, he won on -- somebody said he won on style, the style doesn’t matter -- the issues, the policy matters. He’s getting tremendous reviews from me and everybody, “Trump said, adding, “[A]s you know he’s a great Christian…so that’s very important to me.”

And later Wednesday, at a rally in Henderson, Nev., Trump said Pence “had the single most decisive victory in the history of vice presidential debates.”

“How many of you watched the vice presidential debate last night?” he asked the crowd. :Mike Pence did an incredible job and I’m getting a lot of credit because that’s really my first so-called choice, that’s really my first hire as we would say in Las Vegas. And I’ll tell you he’s good one, he was phenomenal.”

“He was cool, he was smart, he was—you just take a look at him, he was meant to be doing what he’s doing and we are very, very proud of Governor Mike Pence,” Trump continued. “Thank you, Mike Pence.”

The GOP nominee also live-tweeted the debate, lobbing some harsh tweets at Kaine, retweeting insults from supporters like “Kaine looks like a fool!” and “Kaine looks like an evil crook out of the Batman movies.”

Trump periodically lauded his running mate throughout the night…

Clinton congratulated Kaine in an email following the debate Tuesday night, and she followed up with a call to him Wednesday morning. She focused on his arguments on immigration, criminal justice and the economy.

During the debate @HillaryClinton, staffed by her campaign, applauded Kaine on Twitter, and went after Pence for “trying to deny” Trump’s record:

At one point, @HillaryClinton thanked Kaine for his words on supporting American women to make their own decisions when it comes to reproductive rights.

Clinton also backed up Kaine on his debate-night charge that the Trump-Pence ticket is running an “insult-driven campaign.” She cited Trump’s own Tuesday evening tweets as proof:

In:
• Tim Kaine
• Hillary Clinton
• Mike Pence
• Donald Trump