The debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz has been surprisingly adult, and has actually contained some real substance.
Not that the substance of debate was coming from Tim Walz, or the moderators. Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan were the CBS journalists tapped to moderate and… they didn’t do so well. They really wanted to control the narrative. J.D. Vance wanted to explain things regarding immigration. He rightly called them out when they began to fact-check him – and they responded by cutting microphones.
The questions to Vance were much more pointed than to Walz, as well – with one notable exception. The moderators actually asked Tim Walz about his rather large fib about being in Hong Kong when Tiananmen Square happened. Walz looked absolutely gobsmacked that he was even being asked about that. And his answer reflected that. Telling the American people that you’re a “knucklehead” and you “misspeak” is not a good look.
This was the question and then Tim Walz's full answer on his false statements about being in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Completely applesauce. pic.twitter.com/uIpyY3aQwk
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 2, 2024
However, the moment did not last. When J.D. Vance pointed out that the Biden-Harris administration has lost track of thousands and thousands of illegal migrant children, some of who have disappeared into sex trafficking or being drug mules, the moderators immediately pivoted to Tim Walz to deny it. Well….
CBS News should consult CBS News about claims that children are being used as drug muleshttps://t.co/shncXE2fv3
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) October 2, 2024
THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a solid BURN. That one’s going to leave a mark. Will O’Donnell and Brennan care? Not likely. They were there to make sure that Tim Walz got help when he needed it. They weren’t quite as awful as the ABC moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, but they were definitely terrible.
Also terrible? Tim Walz. He was visibly nervous at the beginning of the debate, and while he calmed down over the 90 minutes, he definitely had some BAD moments. Trying the Mongo persona again when caught in a lie is becoming his default, and then he gifted everyone this line:
TIM WALZ: "I'VE BECOME FRIENDS WITH SCHOOL SHOOTERS."
WHAT pic.twitter.com/zgYzydqPbK
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 2, 2024
That caused quite a few heads to turn, and no one exactly knows what he meant. There was one moment where Walz told the story of his son Gus witnessing a shooting at a community center. Vance expressed a genuine level of shock, which made for a nice moment. The problem? No one has ever heard this story before. The incident itself is real, but the presence of Gus Walz at the community center is something that was never mentioned before. Now, Walz could be telling the truth, BUT… he’s been caught in so many lies that no one should take this claim at face value. This may end up being true, or it may be completely unverifiable.
The other moment where J.D. Vance had a better command of the facts than either Tim Walz or the moderators was regarding Minnesota’s abortion law. The law that Walz signed clearly states that abortion is allowed for all nine months – and Walz did not want to hear it.
FACT: Tim Walz signed a law that allowed babies to be left to die if they survive an abortion.
Babies who are BORN ALIVE. pic.twitter.com/brmlbohKtK
— Students for Life of America | Pro-Life Gen (@StudentsforLife) October 2, 2024
And here is that law:
A good article about how Tim Walz and Minnesota legislators changed Minnesota’s law protecting born-alive infants (a law that was in effect from 1976 to the time Walz changed it in 2023). https://t.co/BsmjEb7n86 https://t.co/AmeArLJAt4 pic.twitter.com/pVLTH4ALZC
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) September 11, 2024
Babies have been left to die under this law, and Walz doesn’t want to own it. Just wait until the fact-checkers actually read that law! (They won’t.)
But the enduring image of the night – because this election is all about memes and vibes and JOY! – came down to the split screen.
JD Vance hitting the Jim Halpert on Walz… pic.twitter.com/CsUAOF23Hb
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) October 2, 2024
Vance “breaking the fourth wall” was objectively hilarious, and that image will end up living long after the debate. J.D. Vance won this debate running away, and Walz’s debate performance was compared to… Joe Biden’s. Yikes. It wasn’t that bad, but apparently Biden’s debate performance is the new low for Democrats. None of them can say that Walz won, and the denial and the freakout has begun.
CNN's Abby Phillip MELTS DOWN over Tim Walz "not seem[ing] prepared" for "a lot of" JD Vance's "niceties" and "punches".
"He allowed some clear falsehoods to just go completely unanswered. He allowed JD Vance…to dodge on a whole host of issues." #VPDebate pic.twitter.com/evNuqxgonU
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 2, 2024
The question remains, does this debate matter? In such a tight race, it might. Where it does matter is in the humanization and the un-weirding of J.D. Vance. No one watching this debate will be able to keep calling Vance “weird” and have people actually believe it. This debate has boosted Vance’s national profile, and out of the four candidates, he is the only one who will have a political future on the national stage even if he doesn’t end up in the White House.
Featured image: composite image of J.D. Vance by Gage Skidmore – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic, and Tim Walz by Office of Governor Walz & Lt. Governor Flanagan, in the Public Domain
Bob says: Re Gov. Walz and his scorched-earth abortion law: When Sen. Vance noted that aborted babies who love can be left to die, Gov. Walz denied it angrily. Sen. Vance looked surprise at the denial, but the moderators forged ahead.
That Gov. Walz cannot bring himself to support this barbarism, on national TV, shows that deep down, outside of his bubble, he might actually be ashamed, which would be a good thing.
The primary beneficiaries of abortion on demand are certain politicians ($$$ and votes), Planned Parenthood ($$$$), and predatory men. Women everywhere are the losers: predatory men get a free pass, and once again, women are left with the consequences.
A non-Barbarian says: Infanticide, what you are describing, is against the law in all 50 states.
Regarding Minnesota’s law it states that medical personnel must “care for the infant who is born alive.”
It also kept the provision: “An infant who is born alive shall be fully recognised as a human person, and accorded immediate protection under the law.”
Don’t believe me? Here’s the actual text: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/145.423
To whit: “An infant who is born alive shall be fully recognized as a human person, and accorded immediate protection under the law. All reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice, including the compilation of appropriate medical records, shall be taken by the responsible medical personnel to care for the infant who is born alive.”
For further explanation of the nuances of the law: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/10/02/minnesota-abortion-law-signed-by-walz-scrutinized-during-vp-debate
Relevant quote: “‘What we have put in the bill is what I would call comfort language,’ co-author Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester, testified on the House floor in April of 2023. ‘Removing the so-called “Born Alive Infant Act” from the law does not legalize infanticide as has been alleged.
‘If you give birth pre-term or to an infant that has some kind of devastating defect, instead of that infant being ripped out of your arms because politicians have decided that that is what should happen and there should be significant interventions… it should be between the parents and the doctor,’ Liebling said. ‘People in these tragic situations deserve that privacy.’”
In other words, parents and doctors should get to decide what measures are taken, whether that’s admittance to the NICU for further care or palliative care. It’s actually a kind and caring way to allow parents to have a say in what happens to their child. Demonizing that and calling those parents monsters who chose palliative care is, as you said, barbaric.
A reader says: I love how whiny you ladies get when anyone dares to call conservatives out on their lies. How dare they fact check an obvious and dangerous lie that has already caused a lot of headache, fear and disruption in Springfield?! Oh the nerve! Sometimes you just have to fact check for journalistic integrity. A true journalist would know that.
They cut him off because he was over time and being disrespectful by continuing to talk over the moderators. That is their right. Whining about it like a petulant toddler just makes you seem weak and childish.
The fact is, the Haitian immigrants are here legally. They came legally through the southern border and were granted entry and legal status through several pathways: mainly TPS (Temporary Protective Status) and humanitarian parole programs, including Humanitarian Parole, Family Reunification Parole (FRP) and the Cuban Haitian Nicaraguan Venezuelan Parole (CHNV).
Vance’s explanation was oversimplified and not entirely correct. It was also irrelevant to the question asked. He shouldn’t have been calling them illegal, since they’re not, but here we are.
For a better explanation of the process go here: https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/explainer-the-federal-programs-that-paved-the-way-for-springfield-haitian-influx/QZ62Q7DGRFE6DJPBQ3C4BWHR3E/
That’s a local Ohio newspaper that interviewed local lawyers about the issue. One would think a good journalist be ok with that at least.
3 Comments