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