Tim Kaine on VP Debate: 'I Got Dinged' for Interrupting Too Much

Hillary Clinton’s running mate describes VP debate as “feisty.”

ByABC News
October 5, 2016, 9:42 PM

— -- Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine reflected on his debate performance, admitting to a crowd of supporters that he got "dinged a little bit" for interrupting too much.

During last night's presidential debate, Kaine interrupted GOP rival Mike Pence a whopping 70 times, according to an ABC News analysis. Pence interrupted Kaine 40 times.

At a rally in Philadelphia, Kaine called the vice presidential debate "feisty" and described Donald Trump's running mate as a "pretty good debater."

"He’s pretty smooth but there is one thing he can’t do and that is defend Donald Trump on anything," Kaine said.

Kaine said that Pence walked onto the Farmville, Va. debate stage wanting to "lay gloves" on Hillary Clinton but he blocked the Indiana governor from landing any attacks on his running mate.

"I’ve never played hockey but I think I’d be a good goalie based on last night. Nothing was going in the net last night," Kaine said.

While Kaine seemed pleased with his defense of Clinton, he admitted that he's faced some criticism for his interruptions of Pence.

"I got dinged a little bit even by my wife for interrupting too much. Okay. But the key part of that debate was at some points I felt like both me and Mike Pence were debating Donald Trump. I was going after Donald Trump and Mike Pence kind of going after Trump with me. And I can’t imagine that that made the Donald too happy so there may have been some interesting conversations about that today on the other side of the aisle," Kaine said.

His running mate 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 tried to get out of the way, because after all, trying to defend Donald Trump is an impossible task," Hillary Clinton said at a Washington DC fundraiser tonight.

Today, Trump tweeted about Kaine's "interruptions.

At a roundtable in Nevada, Trump said he was proud of Pence and Pence "won on the issues."

On his performance, Pence said, "Some people think I won. But, I’ll leave that to others. You know what I could tell you from where I sat, Donald Trump won the debate."

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