VP Debate Clips and Reactions
A collection of clips and takes for those who didn't watch.
It is impossible to overstate how well JD Vance did tonight. About two months ago I made a rather bold prediction that this guy was going to be president one day. A lot of people ridiculed me for it. “Make sure you watch the debate in October,” I told them.
I’m now positive that Vance will be president within the next decade or so, regardless of whether Trump wins in November.
This was a master class in intelligent, populist politics. There’s no hyperbole here. I’ve posted a video of the debate in its entirety at the very bottom of this post, for anyone who wants to see for themselves. Vance’s answers were smooth, fluent, and personable. He basically ran rings around a flustered, hapless Walz, whose answers were often remarkably bad. The difference in demeanor and communicative skills was glaring.
It’s long been said that vice presidential debates matter very little. But this election is different. We currently have a president who is so mentally infirm that his own aides admitted he’s incapable of doing the job after 4 PM. And within the past two months there have been two attempts on Donald Trump’s life.
So yeah, the vice presidential candidates seem a lot more important this time around. And I’d say that it matters a whole lot that JD Vance was able to put flesh on the bones of Trumpism while coming across as a humble, extremely intelligent dude who will be a restraining influence on Donald Trump in a way that Mike Pence was not. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this debate will have an impact on swing voters.
Listen to him answer this gotcha question about why he’s walked back some of his criticism of Trump:
Vance: “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. You’ve got to pretend that Donald Trump didn’t deliver lower inflation, which of course he did. And then you’ve got to defend Kamala Harris’s atrocious economic record, which has made gas, groceries, and housing unaffordable for American citizens.”
Vance: “You blame Donald Trump. Who has been the vice president for the past 3.5 years? And the answer is your running mate. Not mine.”
CNN’s David J. Urban: “I think, if you — if you only knew the JD Vance memes which most of America, that's what they’ve kind of gotten their opinion of him I think JD Vance, you know again, ten out of ten. He comes out of here, looks like — like you said, a well trained, well educated, thoughtful individual, not mean spirited, somebody who would be your neighbor living in your neighborhood. He’s got kids...I think he came across genuinely.”
MSNBC’s Symone Sanders is upset about all the “niceties” from Tim Walz on the debate stage: “I am just kinda like, well, if you agree so much with JD Vance, why should they vote for you?”
Nicole Wallace has a meltdown:
Walz implodes:
CNN hosts discuss Tim Walz’s failed attempt to explain his “history of embellishing.”
Dana Bash: “What I was hearing from Democrats, who were doing whatever you do to cringe over a text, they were not thrilled about that answer.”
Abby Phillip: “It was very cringey.”
Vance: “The people that I’m most worried about in Springfield, Ohio are the American citizens who have had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’ open border.”
CBS told the candidates prior to the debate that there wouldn’t be any “fact checking.” So when the moderators tried to fact check Vance, claiming that the absurd number of Haitian migrants that have descended on Springfield, Ohio have “legal status,” he rightly pushed back and corrected them by explaining the CBP One App. I absolutely loved this because I’ve written about it before.
Biden has used various “parole scams” to grant illegal immigrants “legal status.” The president doesn’t have legal authority to parole illegals into the U.S. and is limited to allowing individual aliens in “on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.” Only Congress has the power to expand that authority, and yet Biden has gotten away with it through edict.
The most fraudulent of the parole programs is the Biden CBP One App, which allows illegals who’ve made it to central and northern Mexico to literally schedule their illegal entry — on the cell phones they’re given for free, courtesy of the American taxpayer — by making arrangements at Southwest border ports. Border Patrol (the Welcoming Committee) is forced to roll out the red carpet along with a work permit. These inadmissible migrants are somehow not illegal because they’ve used the Biden app and gotten a parole Biden has no legitimate authority to grant. Then there’s also Biden’s “CHNV parole” program, which is available to nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and allows entry by some 360,000 of these “migrants” per year.
MSNBC threw a fit over this and accused Vance of “mansplaining”:
CNN’s Scott Jennings: “Don’t you think on these VP debates, though, there’s two issues: One, does this person look like they’re capable of stepping into the job? Walz totally failed on that. Vance rose to the occasion. The other thing is, people are evaluating Trump and Harris on their choices. And up until now, we’ve been told what a terrible choice Trump made and what an inspired choice Harris made and now the veil is off. The charade is over and I think it calls into question — I mean, she’s got to staff the whole government. This was her first choice? I don’t know.”
ABC’s Jonathan Karl: “I’ve got to say...Walz did seem unsteady and, frankly, what I saw in Walz is somebody who has not faced questions on...He was simply out of practice...JD Vance was very smooth. He took the arguments...to Kamala Harris.”
CBS’ Ed Gordon laments that “the civility that we saw tonight may be a mistake by Democrats quite frankly....Walz missed an opportunity to really push the racial insensitivity.”
Appreciate all the clips. You could feel the contempt from those moderators towards Vance and he handled in masterfully.
Appreciate you sticking it out to wade into the post-debate analysis. Kind of shocked that they are sort of admitting reality -- especially the "This was Kamala's first pick?" angle.