Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio)
faced off against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) Tuesday night for the vice presidential debate in New York City. In an uncustomarily civil engagement by recent standards, the two men advanced disparate visions for America, traded barbs, and demonstrated — or tried to demonstrate — their value to their respective running mates.
Despite efforts by the CBS News moderators to help Walz and hinder Vance, it quickly became clear — even to liberal talking heads — that the Democratic governor was grossly outmatched.
In response to Van Jones calling Vance “slick, slick, slick” after the debate, fellow CNN panelist David Urban
said, “Ten out of ten for JD Vance. Ten strike. … He landed a lot of good punches, but he did so with an iron fist in a velvet glove. He was very smooth. He was likeable. He looked presidential.”
Donald Trump Jr., who leaned on his father to choose Vance as his running mate,
told CNN, “I thought it was a master class. It was just an incredible performance — just real command of the facts.”
Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany
wrote, “JD Vance was very clearly a masterful pick for Vice President. His heartfelt response to questions and kind demeanor was very powerful. Really excellent judgment by @DonaldJTrumpJr and all those instrumental to the pick.”
‘I’ve never seen a national candidate look as nervous as Tim Walz.’
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat
noted that the debate revealed why Vance was a great choice of running mate for Trump, stressing that the Ohio senator delivered “one of the best debating performances by a Republican nominee for president or vice president in recent memory and making a case for Trump’s record far more effectively than Trump has ever been capable of doing.”
“You’ve got a tough job here. You’ve got to pretend that Donald Trump didn’t deliver rising take-home pay, which of course he did,” Vance said during the debate.
“You’ve got to pretend that Donald Trump didn’t deliver lower inflation, which of course he did,” continued the senator. “And then you’ve got to defend Kamala Harris’ atrocious economic record, which has made gas, groceries, and housing unaffordable for American citizens.”
Extra to defending Trump’s record and contrasting his running mate’s successes with Harris’ failures, Vance, who managed a chipper tone throughout, steamrolled Walz for much of the debate.
Walz often proved incapable of hiding his panic, such as when Vance raised the matter of censorship and
extracted an admission from the governor that a Harris-Walz administration would criminalize speech deemed hateful.
On another occasion when Walz again looked utterly beaten, Vance
said, “You blame Donald Trump. Who has been the vice president for the last three and a half years? And the answer is your running mate, not mine.”
National Review editor Rich Lowry later
noted, “I’ve never seen a national candidate look as nervous as Tim Walz when he’s not speaking.”
“Walz looks rusty and nervous,”
wrote Josh Rogin of the Washington Post. “Maybe he should have done some press interviews to better prepare.”
In an apparent attempt to expedite several of the beatings, Walz simply nodded in agreement and in one case rushed to surrender. When it came to addressing his lie about being in Hong Kong during the pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989, he admitted he was a “knucklehead” prone to getting “caught up in the rhetoric.”
Rachel Maddow
said after the debate that she “wouldn’t describe them as evenly matched.” Her fellow MSNBC talking head Chris Hayes admitted, “JD Vance is very good at this.”
‘My condolences to Tim Walz.’
Although loath to pay Vance a real compliment, Ben Davis of the Guardian, a leftist British publication,
wrote, “This project — nationalism, protectionism, welfare chauvinism, and a sort of communitarian-sounding social conservatism — floundered two years ago with candidates like Blake Masters or Vance himself. Vance was able to maneuver it to sound almost moderate and reasonable.”
Jacobin founding editor Bhaskar Sunkara admitted that Vance “overall gave a slightly stronger performance.”
Polling expert Frank Luntz ran a focus group during the debate with over a dozen people, only five of whom were leaning toward supporting President Donald Trump and Vance at the outset. He
noted that the final vote was 12-2 in favor of Vance.
There was a similar response on the betting website Polymarket. Shortly after the debate began, confidence in Walz’s ability to win the debate
bottomed out.
According to CBS News’ own polling data, Vance not only won the debate but saw his favorability rating jump afterward.
Lawmakers also recognized Vance’s clear victory.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)
wrote, “Most lopsided vice presidential debate ever. JD Vance was on his game. Tim Walz was nervous, uninformed, and didn’t explain why he lies all the time.”
“JD Vance won big and demonstrated why he was a fantastic pick by President Trump,”
wrote Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “He skillfully contrasted Trump’s record of peace and prosperity with Kamala’s record of disaster.”
Vivek Ramaswamy
tweeted, “Very proud of JD for a stellar performance tonight. And my condolences to Tim Walz – it was unkind for them to put him in this position.”
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