Trump's campaign manager denies he's irked at being upstaged by Pence

Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said her boss was “excited” and “proud” after Mike Pence’s debate performance Tuesday night, pushing back against reports that the Manhattan billionaire felt upstaged by his running mate’s superior showing.

The Indiana governor was calm and collected Wednesday night, refusing to be baited by Sen. Tim Kaine’s repeated attempts to force Pence to defend some of Trump’s most outrageous remarks. Stylistically, Pence appeared to emerge from the debate victorious, but at least two reporters had sources in the Trump campaign tell them that the GOP nominee was unhappy that his running mate didn’t offer a more full-throated defense.


“CNN’s John King, reporting from a source close to Trump, that the reviews that Pence did better [than] he did won’t go over well with Trump,” the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein wrote on Twitter Tuesday night. That post was followed shortly by one from CNBC’s John Harwood, who wrote, “Trump adviser on debate after Pence passed up opportunities to defend him: ‘Pence won overall, but lost with Trump.'”

Conway said Wednesday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that such reports were “just not true.”

“His last tweet last night was how excited he was, how proud of him he was. They talked last night. I talked to Mr. Trump during the debate several times,” Conway said of Trump’s response to Pence’s debate performance. “I think the one thing to remember is that, as Ronald Reagan always said, personnel is policy. And Donald Trump has promised as president to surround himself with the best people. You saw last night who the best people are. The first exercise in judgment in leadership by Donald J. Trump after he became the Republican nominee was his selection of his vice presidential running mate, and you see it was just a fantastic pick.”

Unlike Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, who refused to declare a winner and downplayed the debate’s significance in his own “Morning Joe” interview, Conway was quick to name Pence as the victor Tuesday night. That others have downplayed the vice presidential debate’s significance is only further proof that Pence had scored a resounding win.

“The way you know Governor Pence won the debate would be one of two reasons. You either watched it or you’re listening to everybody last night and this morning, Joe, say, ‘You know, these vice presidential debates don't really matter. Not going to move the needle.’ That's exactly how you know Mike Pence won,” she said.

“I thought Mike Pence was really tough against Tim Kaine, but without getting down in the mud with Tim Kaine. It's the job of the presidential nominee, as we know, to go and take the case to the nominee, to the top of the ticket,” she continued. “And in my view, Governor Pence did a nice job taking on Hillary Clinton's record, but he mentioned his name 70 times. Tim Kaine mentioned Donald Trump's name 160 times. It was like he had a tic.”