Last night's 60 Minutes interview on CBS with the Trump/Pence ticket was filled with moments of discomfort, narcissism and pettiness as longtime host Leslie Stahl admirably kept a straight face.
One of the strangest displays came when Stahl was trying to figure out what Donald Trump meant when he said after the Nice attack in France, that he'd declare war. "You said you would declare war against...Declare war," do you want to send American troops in there? Is that what you mean?" She continued, "With troops on the ground?"
Trump answered in typical fashion, "I am going to have very few troops on the ground. We're going to have unbelievable intelligence, which we need; which, right now, we don't have. We don't have the people over there. We are going to use--"
Just repeating over and over again that we're going to have "unbelievable intelligence" once he's president is dangerous at worst and sophomoric at best.
The CBS interviewer had no idea what Trump meant because he mostly uses declarative and exclamatory sentences when being asked for specifics and this is where Gov. Pence awkwardly stepped in to try and save Trump, but made himself look very weak-kneed in the process.
Lesley Stahl: You want to send Americans--
Donald Trump: Excuse me-- and we're going to have surrounding states and, very importantly, get NATO involved because we support NATO far more than we should, frankly, because you have a lot of countries that aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing. And we have to wipe out ISIS. And speaking of Turkey, Turkey is an ally. Turkey can do it by themselves. But they have to be incentivized. For whatever reason, they're not. So we have no choice.
Lesley Stahl: But I still don't know if you're going to send troops over--
Donald Trump: Very little. I'm gonna--
Lesley Stahl: But declare war--
Donald Trump: --get neighboring states and I'm going to get-- we are going to get NATO; we're going to wipe 'em out. We're gonna--
Lesley Stahl: But declare war?
Mike Pence: Lesley--
Lesley Stahl: What does that mean--
Gov. Pence stepped in and sounded like an Alex Jones-type of supporter instead of a vice presidential candidate.
Mike Pence: This is-- this is the kind-- this is the kind of leadership that America needs and it-Lesley Stahl: But what--
Mike Pence: -and it begins with deciding to destroy the enemies of our freedom.
Lesley Stahl: How?
Mike Pence: And how we do that? I have every confidence. You-- you remember I served on the Foreign Affairs Committee. And I'm very confident that when Donald Trump becomes president of the United States, he'll give a directive to our military commanders, bring together other nations, and we will use the enormous resources of the United States to destroy that enemy.
Gov. Pence told America that Trump's nonsensical answers on how he would handle ISIS, proves what a great leader he is?
Stunning, just stunning.
