During Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, moderator Elaine Quijano found herself tasked with reeling in two candidates who immediately began interrupting each other and never stopped for a full 90 minutes. Oddly enough, Mike Pence attempted to gaslight America by denying several notorious positions of running mate Donald Trump, and another disturbing -ing occurred throughout the event.
Yes, the dreaded “mansplaining” stood in full effect.
Both Kaine and Pence repeatedly talked down to Quijano, who has never helmed a television debate before, but she’s a seasoned CBS Weekend News anchor. As a moderator, her performance was uneven, and she sometimes cut short answers in progress (before their time) to move onto other subjects. However, she was also faced with attempting to control two shameless interjectors, who refused to heed her requests to stop doing so. Folks on social media began to empathize with Quijano’s plight.
Throw @Elaine_Quijano a parade for her telling the candidates that nobody can understand them when they're talking over each other
— @hayesbrown.bsky.social (@HayesBrown) October 5, 2016
.@Elaine_Quijano deserves a huge raise. This is combat pay. #VPDebate
— Charles Ornstein (@charlesornstein) October 5, 2016
Things grew worse. In response to one of Quijano’s attempts to steer the conversation, Tim Kaine — the Internet’s dad! — uttered these dreadful words: “This is important, Elaine.”
People noticed.
https://twitter.com/juliweiner/status/783487865976225792
"Hey Mike and Tim, constantly steamrolling moderator Elaine Quijano is super charming!" said nobody. #VPDebate #Debates2016
— Ed Helms (@edhelms) October 5, 2016
The disrespect shown to Elaine Quijano is unreal. #VPDebate
— Natasha Rothwell (@natasharothwell) October 5, 2016
https://twitter.com/bimadew/status/783478947518578692
Elaine Quijano is every woman during a meeting/group project with men.#VPDebate
— Casey Mendoza (@CaseyMdoza) October 5, 2016
Seinfeld‘s Elaine Benes provides a good reference point at times like these.
https://twitter.com/DanaSchwartzzz/status/783486990041907201
At that point, Twitter swallowed itself up with countless mentions of mansplaining from both women and men. Here are some of the many complaints that followed.
"Not now, Elaine. The men are busy discussing what to do with your uterus." #VPDebate #mansplaining
— jenny isme (@sweet_calamity) October 5, 2016
https://twitter.com/Samsnonsense/status/783495587563876352
"DONT PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH WHILE I INTERRUPT AND MANSPLAIN TO ELAINE." -Pence, tonight #VPDebate
— Michael (@mmccormack) October 5, 2016
https://twitter.com/hanleybadger/status/783488113842741248
OH DONT MANSPLAIN HER, KAINE! #VPDebate
— Dr. Meg “Crusher of Western Metaphysics” Oldman (@Medieval_MegO) October 5, 2016
Did Kaine just mansplain the moderator? When she told him time was up, he said, "This is important, Elaine" and kept talking. #VPDebate
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) October 5, 2016
And the two men mansplained to each other too! They’re both go-getting multitaskers in that regard. Overall, it seems like Mike Pence was at least more subtle than Kaine, not that he should receive praise for hiding it better. Someone give Quijano a margarita.
Pence got that Type A Macho "soft touch mansplain" down pat. Plays well with some… #debates2016
— Jesse Van Tol (@jessevantol) October 5, 2016
https://twitter.com/KellanConnor/status/783490985867087872
