WASHINGTON _ Tim Kaine said Thursday that Mike Pence's failure to defend Donald Trump has rattled the GOP presidential nominee ahead of Sunday's second presidential showdown.
"That's going to work on his head a little bit," Kaine said on CNN's "New Day."
"He saw a debate two nights ago where his own running mate threw him under the bus."
Trump's campaign team has repeatedly said that the businessman was pleased and "proud" of Pence's performance.
In fact, Trump took credit for his running mate's success.
"Mike Pence did an incredible job and I'm getting a lot of credit because that's really my first so-called choice, that was my first hire," Trump said at a rally in Nevada.
Stylistically, Kaine's combative performance at this week's one-and-only vice presidential debate was widely panned compared with Pence's even-keeled approach.
But Pence also declined multiple opportunities to push back against Kaine's criticism of Trump, especially the long list of insults Trump has leveled at various groups of Americans.
"Gov. Pence had a choice: He could have defended his running mate or not," Kaine said on "New Day."
"Again and again he refused to defend Donald Trump," Kaine said. "If your own running mate won't defend you, it's kind of hard to ask people to vote for Donald Trump."
