Rick Santorum cut off female co-panelist Gloria Borger while she was talking about Mike Pence interrupting Kamala Harris at the VP debate

• Former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum cut off the CNN analyst Gloria Borger while she was explaining the significance of Mike Pence repeatedly cutting off Kamala Harris at Wednesday's vice-presidential debate.
• At a CNN panel afterward, Borger tried to praise Harris but was cut off by Santorum.
• "Women watching that are going to say, 'Wait a minute,'" Borger began to say before Santorum interjected: "Don't make the claim that he interrupted her repeatedly, because he didn't."
• Echoing Harris' response of "Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking," when Pence cut her off, Borger fired back: "Mr. Santorum, I'm speaking."
• Watch the video of the panel discussion below.

Former Republican Sen. Rick Santorum interrupted a female co-panelist as she tried to explain the optics of Vice President Mike Pence constantly interrupting the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, during their Wednesday-night debate.

Pence interrupted Harris about twice as often as she did — prompting the CNN analyst Gloria Borger to criticize the vice president during the network's post-debate panel, on which she was the only woman.

Borger began to praise Harris' composure and explain what the interruptions might signal to female viewers, but Santorum loudly cut off Borger to muscle in a counterpoint.

Borger said of Harris: "That's hard, when you're getting interrupted constantly."

"Maybe she did create a meme — 'Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking' — and she kept saying that to him, as if to say, 'I'm not finished,' and then he would sort of plow ahead," she said.

She added: "Women watching that are going to say, 'Wait a minute.'"

Then Santorum cut off Borger, saying: "Don't make the claim that he interrupted her repeatedly, because he didn't."

—Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) October 8, 2020

Replicating Harris' refrain when interrupted during the debate, Borger responded, "Mr. Santorum, I'm speaking," while Santorum proceeded with his interruption.

The irony was not lost on some viewers.

"Santorum interrupted the woman on the CNN panel to tell her that Pence didn't interrupt Kamala. With absolutely no irony or self-awareness," tweeted April Reign, a cofounder of a campaign to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.

The New Yorker's Patrick Radden Keefe tweeted: "Amazing moment just now on CNN where Gloria Borger, the sole woman on a panel with 4 men, starts to explain what it was like for women to watch Kamala get repeatedly interrupted but can't finish because the men on the panel interrupt her."

Though Pence's interruptions attracted attention, the debate overall was far more subdued than the conflict between Joe Biden and President Donald Trump last week in their first debate.

Trump interjected and spoke over Biden so often that the debate was largely rendered down to a melee of noise and hand gestures.

Santorum also made news for his comments following that debate.

Appearing on CNN, Santorum said it was unfair of the debate moderator Chris Wallace to ask Trump to condemn right-wing extremists because it would mean alienating Trump's own supporters.

• Read more:
• Fact-checking the vice-presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris
• The biggest moment of the Pence-Harris debate was a fly landing on Pence's head, which sums up how calm it was without Trump
• Trump needed a clear win from Pence to turn around their faltering campaign, and Pence didn't deliver