--- title: Vice Presidential Debate Played Out Differently Online description: The relative low stakes of Tuesday's Vice Presidential debate left the campaigns some room to get creative with their online strategy. canonical: https://time.com/4518926/vice-presidential-debate-online/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-05T03:16:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:49:24.592Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Vice Presidential Debate Played Out Differently Online og:description: Campaigns got creative with a low-stakes contest. og:url: https://time.com/4518926/vice-presidential-debate-online/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt199e7973fef30f26/6988a8b8a988cae8ac6b9a62/161005_em_vpdebatevideo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: 161005_EM_VPDebateVideo og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Vice Presidential Debate Played Out Differently Online twitter:description: Campaigns got creative with a low-stakes contest. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt199e7973fef30f26/6988a8b8a988cae8ac6b9a62/161005_em_vpdebatevideo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Vice Presidential Debate Played Out Differently Online > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=b4df8547-cf4f-464a-9610-2b3fd4af44a0&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Here’s What Donald Trump Was Tweeting During the VP Debate [Watch (HLS stream): Here’s What Donald Trump Was Tweeting During the VP Debate](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7u5aZ07w.m3u8) (1:05)  _Published 2016-10-05. But he wasn’t the only one chiming in with 140 characters_ by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 5, 2016 3:16 AM UTC by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Oct 5, 2016 3:16 AM UTC The relative low stakes of [Tuesday’s Vice Presidential debate](http://time.com/4518891/vice-presidential-debate-kaine-pence-preview/) left the campaigns some wiggle room to get creative with their online strategy. While Democrat Tim Kaine duked it out with Republican Mike Pence, a battle of sorts raged online between campaigns competing for eyeballs, retweets and likes—even the [third-party candidates](http://time.com/4497049/bernie-sanders-third-party-clinton/) joined in on the fun. While his running mate was on stage, Republican nominee Donald Trump let his Twitter fingers fly, live-tweeting the debate from Nevada. Trump kicked things off with a bang, going directly at Fox News anchor [Megyn Kelly](http://motto.time.com/4512953/megyn-kelly-kellyanne-conway-misogyny/), who questioned if Trump was actually sending his own tweets, CNN’s Brian Stelter [reports](https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/783476640164810756). > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/783473285535150080) The Clinton campaign took the chance to take potshots at Trump over Twitter to rebut the action on the screen. When Pence suggested that the Republican ticket was not running an “insult-driven campaign,” the @HillaryClinton account pointed to the billionaire’s tweets. > [](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/783482536701915136) The independent VP candidates, who were not invited to Tuesday’s debate, also got in on the online action. Green Party VP nominee Ajamu Baraka participated in a airing of the debate broadcast where he cut into the stream and responded in real time. The Liberatrian VP candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, also live-tweeted the debate, offering critiques of the two on-stage candidates, and later shared a response video on Facebook Live. Clinton and Trump ended the night online congratulating their running mates—each with their own flare. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/783495937708527616) > [](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/783494516363890688) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4518926/vice-presidential-debate-online/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4518926/vice-presidential-debate-online/"},"headline":"The Vice Presidential Debate Played Out Differently Online","datePublished":"2016-10-05T03:16:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-07T06:49:24.592Z","description":"All of the action was online","url":"https://time.com/4518926/vice-presidential-debate-online/","keywords":["Debates","Social Media","2016 Election","Internet","twitter"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt199e7973fef30f26/6988a8b8a988cae8ac6b9a62/161005_em_vpdebatevideo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt199e7973fef30f26/6988a8b8a988cae8ac6b9a62/161005_em_vpdebatevideo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"161005_EM_VPDebateVideo","caption":"161005_EM_VPDebateVideo","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4518926/vice-presidential-debate-online/","name":"The Vice Presidential Debate Played Out Differently Online"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Here’s What Donald Trump Was Tweeting During the VP Debate","description":"But he wasn’t the only one chiming in with 140 characters","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7u5aZ07w/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-10-05T04:39:09.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7u5aZ07w.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4518926/vice-presidential-debate-online/","duration":"PT1M5S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4518926/vice-presidential-debate-online/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```