What Went Down During The Vice Presidential Debate

Pence says he respects the freedom of the American people and that the Biden campaign wants mandates for handling the coronavirus, connecting that — reaching — to a supposed government takeover of health care.

I do think Pence’s line of defense here — “we trust Americans to make their own choices,” “we don’t want to tell people to do” — is maybe their best argument on COVID-19? It’s at least philosophically Republican.

Given what most polling has shown about what America thinks about Trump and Pence on coronavirus, every minute spent talking about it is probably a lost minute for Pence. I don’t think the specific spin is going to make much difference.