During ABC’s post-debate coverage, George Stephanopoulos suggested that people noticed Vice President Pence was “mansplaining” during his debate with Kamala Harris.
According to Merriam Webster “Mansplaining is, at its core, a very specific thing. It’s what occurs when a man talks condescendingly to someone (especially a woman) about something he has incomplete knowledge of, with the mistaken assumption that he knows more about it than the person he’s talking to does.”
However, people from Frank Luntz’s focus group of undecided voters found that it was actually Kamala Harris’ facial expressions which they considered “condescending.”
Luntz wrote “My undecided voters think Mike Pence is more professional, but that he looks tired. They think Kamala Harris is more passionate, but her reaction-faces are really bothering people.”
He added in a later tweet ”I might get #cancelled for this, but my undecided focus group doesn’t like how Kamala Harris interacts with her opponent. We saw this in the Dem debates – she is applauded for her knowledge, but they just don’t like her “condescending reactions.” #VPDebate”
“Oh dear,” columnist Rita Panahi reacted. “This is a rather desperate tactic, it may work on the Twitter demographic, but most normal people roll their eyes when they hear the term ‘mansplaining.’”
“Pulling out the ‘mansplaining’ card. Harris must have performed worse than expected,” Daily Caller’s Mary Margaret Olohan concluded.
“Translation: Pence absolutely won the debate on merit so the media is using every lame excuse possible,” former Secretary of Defense special assistant Amber Smith similarly wrote.
