Most social media users agree that Vice President Mike Pence won Wednesday night's vice presidential debate against Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). It's even a trending topic. But some viewers wonder if he got an assist from the moderator.
USA Today's Susan Page thanked the Commission on Presidential Debates for the opportunity.
"At an important moment in our nation's history, it was the honor of my professional life to moderate last night's vice presidential debate," Page wrote on Twitter when the cameras stopped rolling. "My thanks to the Commission for Presidential Debates @debates for the opportunity."
But according to CNN's Dana Bash, Page should have done more to help Sen. Harris.
CNN just said "she didn't get a lot of help from the moderator."
— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) October 8, 2020
Whoops!
Are moderators supposed to "help" the Democrat? ??
Others were outraged that Page let the vice president talk over her and Harris, and accused her of intentionally giving Pence more time to speak.
One takeaway from tonight's debate will be how many times a woman of color, always smiling pleasantly, has to tell a white man, "I'm speaking," in order to STILL get less time than he gets. It is nauseating.
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) October 8, 2020
But we appear to have the tally. And it looks like Pence got a whole...three seconds more speaking time than his opponent.
Because nothing says sexism like 3 seconds. pic.twitter.com/GkcA7YdMOa
— Abigail Marone ???? (@abigailmarone) October 8, 2020
Three seconds. And yet on Twitter people are accusing Page of being "subservient" to Pence.
"Did you intentionally give Pence more time?" one user asked. "That was just unbelievable. You shamed American women last night."
Will this be the last debate before election? On Thursday morning the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that they are making the second presidential debate virtual. President Trump said he won't agree to that "waste of time" and plans to hold a rally instead.