Last night’s CBS Tim Walz-JD Vance Vice Presidential Debate was indecisive, as Tim Walz did not go for the “jugular vein” of JD Vance, giving him a pass on his “cat ladies” comment and his promotion of the Springfield Haitian immigrants controversy, which Walz brought up, but did not go far enough. Overall, the tone of the debate was more civil than one might have expected.
Early indications are that Vance was seen as having performed somewhat better, although it was very troubling that he was unwilling to say Donald Trump lost the Presidential Election of 2020, amid indications he would be willing to contest the results in a similar situation after this year’s election.
Walz seemed a bit tentative in his debate style, so in that sense, he was disappointing, but still the public perception of Walz is much higher than that of Vance.
Stylistically, Vance can be perceived overall as a better debater, but he engaged in lying in many of his statements, with Walz giving him a pass.
History tells us that Vice Presidential debates do not determine election results, so in that sense, Walz did not have a specific blunder that would undermine the Democratic Party Presidential campaign.
Walz seemed nervous at first, but got better by the second half of the debate.
Vance is slick and tried his best to sanewash Trump.
Jacob Soboroff, one of the reporters on MSNBC, talked with some college students after the debate. One of the students pointed out that Vance doesn’t know basic civics. Vance talks about Harris as if she’s in charge of doing everything.
One of the losers of the debate was the moderators. They didn’t want to do fact-checking and the questions they asked were either not probing enough or poorly framed.
The best moderators from the debates has been ABC News’ David Muir and Linsey Davis.
I agree about the disappointment of Walz’s performance. Walz missed MANY opportunities to let viewers know that Vance is a far-right extremist nutjob.
The debate, which I thought was weirdly civil, won’t change many minds.
Jack Smith’s new filing in the J6 case, which was delayed from being released last week due to the hurricane coverage, was released today.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/judge-chutkan-jack-smith-unsealed-presidential-immunity-motion-rcna173721
Here’s that student that said Vance needs a civics lesson.
https://www.msnbc.com/jose-diaz-balart/watch/college-student-goes-viral-for-giving-vance-civics-lesson-after-debate-220677701836