--- description: Donald Trump praised Mike Pence's debate performance Wednesday afternoon, but he said the credit is really due to the top of the ticket. title: Trump Takes Credit for Pence's Debate Performance image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2177b8583732a0a/6988a8b5ab6d7759636ab74e/vice-presidential-debate-tim-kaine-mike-pence-24.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Debates](/tag/debates/) ## Debates Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Donald Trump Takes Credit for Mike Pence's Debate Performance  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 5, 2016 7:44 PM CUT  Republican vice-presidential nominee Gov. Mike Pence answers a question during the vice-presidential debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Va., Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016. Republican vice-presidential nominee Gov. Mike Pence answers a question during the vice-presidential debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Va., Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016.David Goldman—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 5, 2016 7:44 PM CUT Donald Trump praised [Mike Pence’s debate performance](http://time.com/4519111/vice-presidential-debate-mike-pence-donald-trump/?xid=homepage "undefined") Wednesday afternoon, but he said the credit is really due to the top of the ticket. “Mike Pence did an incredible job, and I’m getting a lot of credit because that’s really [my first so-called choice](http://time.com/4409330/donald-trump-mike-pence-vice-president-2/?iid=sr-link3 "undefined"), that was my first hire,” Trump said in Henderson, Nevada. “I’d argue that Mike had the single most decisive victory in the history of vice presidential debates. I believe that, too. And last night America also got to look firsthand at my judgment.” The Republican Governor of Indiana remained calm during the first and only vice presidential debate Tuesday night as Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine lobbed a [series of zingers](http://time.com/4518958/vice-presidential-debate-tim-kaine-zingers/?xid=tcoshare "undefined") against him and tried to pin him to some of Trump’s more controversial statements. Pence coolly [deflected, denied and ignored](http://time.com/4519050/vice-presidential-debate-pence-trump/?iid=sr-link2 "undefined") most of the attacks. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4520238/donald-trump-mike-pence-debate-performance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4520238/donald-trump-mike-pence-debate-performance/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Takes Credit for Mike Pence's Debate Performance","datePublished":"2016-10-05T19:44:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:01:51.341Z","description":"Donald Trump praised Mike Pence's debate performance Wednesday afternoon, but he said the credit is really due to the top of the ticket.","url":"https://time.com/4520238/donald-trump-mike-pence-debate-performance/","keywords":["Debates","Donald Trump","Mike Pence"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2177b8583732a0a/6988a8b5ab6d7759636ab74e/vice-presidential-debate-tim-kaine-mike-pence-24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc2177b8583732a0a/6988a8b5ab6d7759636ab74e/vice-presidential-debate-tim-kaine-mike-pence-24.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL Debate","caption":"Campaign 2016 VP Debate","creditText":"David Goldman—AP","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/4520238/donald-trump-mike-pence-debate-performance/","name":"Donald Trump Takes Credit for Mike Pence's Debate Performance"}}]}] ```