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- Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance had a sharp exchange regarding the January 6, 2021, riot.
- Walz criticized former President Trump for his efforts to overturn Biden’s 2020 election victory.
- Vance declined to state whether Trump lost the 2020 race and brought up Facebook, which Trump has repeatedly criticized.
During Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio defended their running mates on everything from climate change to inflation. And while tech companies were hardly mentioned during the mostly cordial debate, there was one notable exception: Facebook.
An exchange between Walz and Vance regarding the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, was especially noteworthy in that it once again re-litigated the tumult of the 2020 presidential election — a contest that former President Donald Trump lost. The former president faces legal action over what prosecutors say were his efforts to overturn the election during his last weeks in the White House.
Vance last month said that if he had been the vice president in January 2021 — and not Mike Pence — he would have had key swing states “submit alternative slates of electors” in order to allow the country to have a debate over the election. At the time, Trump and a swath of GOP lawmakers claimed — without evidence — that there were voting irregularities in states like Arizona and Pennsylvania, and they cast doubt on now-President Joe Biden’s victory.
During the debate, Walz was incredulous after Vance refused to say that Trump lost the 2020 election.
“A president’s words matter,” the governor said regarding Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021.
Vance responded: “It’s really rich for Democratic leaders to say that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy.”
The Ohio lawmaker then sought to criticize Democrats over their complaints regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election via Facebook.
It was a remark that Walz strongly pushed back against as he debated his GOP counterpart — and led to one of the most memorable moments on Tuesday night.
“January 6 was not Facebook ads,” the governor said. “And I think a revisionist history on this. Look, I don’t understand how we got to this point, but the issue was that happened. And all of us say there’s no place for this. It has massive repercussions.”
Walz’s Facebook reference was a direct response to Vance’s allegation that Democrats didn’t accept the results of the 2016 presidential election — when Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — due to Russian misinformation that came from Facebook ads.
The governor then said that the issue of January 6 was one where he and Vance are “miles apart.”
Walz said the unprecedented “threat to our democracy” came from Trump, who is “still saying he didn’t lose the election.”
For over three years, Democrats and Republicans have tussled over January 6, 2021, and its meaning to the American public.
The debate’s conversation then veered back to the Meta-run social network, which has been criticized by many Democratic and GOP officials alike.
Trump previously threatened to imprison Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who in a letter to House Republicans in August said that Facebook erred in pulling down particular COVID-related content from the platform.
During the debate, Vance pivoted from January 6 to rail against what he said was censorship from Harris regarding online misinformation.
Zuckerberg has sought to recast himself as a libertarian and steer clear of politics, according to a September New York Times report.
