AFT’s Weingarten on the Vice Presidential Debate

NEW YORK CITY—Statement by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on the Oct. 4 vice presidential debate:

“At Tuesday night’s debate, Tim Kaine did exactly what he set out to do. From start to finish, he pointed out—with fact after fact—the recklessness that makes Donald Trump unfit for the presidency of the United States.

“We applaud Kaine for putting his commitment to public education front and center—mentioning at the outset the fight for educational equity and justice that occurred decades ago in Farmville, Va., and pledging to work with Hillary Clinton to make the classroom a better learning environment for students and teachers. We saw, on Tuesday night, why Kaine will be a powerful partner for Clinton in her effort to level the playing field for working families and extend educational and economic opportunity to all Americans.

“Rather than bothering to make the argument for his running mate, Mike Pence gave debate viewers a polished but phony performance—feigning disbelief that Trump had hurled the toxic rhetoric and abuse Americans have heard from him for more than a year. What Americans learned from Pence was that even Trump’s running mate finds Trump indefensible—and would rather talk about anything but the extreme, dangerous words that Trump has said.”