Is it possible the vice presidential debate was … too nice?
It’s hard to believe I’m asking that, after Donald Trump’s mind-numbing, fib-filled debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, but the first and only 2024 VP debate between Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was just that cordial.
There was no getting under either man’s skin and no shouting. Even interruptions seemed, well, courteous and sweet.
If you came looking for a fight, you were sorely disappointed. But that’s the baseline these days, isn’t it? When political debates are held the way they are supposed to be, it seems radical.
Still, I doubt the debate was everything it could have been for the American viewers. Voters, especially the important “undecideds” — at 37%, according to the consumer opinion company Resonate — needed to see a clear contrast in opinion and policies between the two men. I’m not sure they came away having made a decision.
I’d have to go back and check but there were so many “I agree with Gov. Walz” and “Sen. Vance and I aren’t that far off,” statements I wonder if the undecideds out there were left asking, is there a real difference? Polls will tell.
The two men seemed like they could have left the debate stage and grabbed a beer with their wives. Still, if the candidates had one job to do, they did it well — and that’s to crack away at the other’s running mate.
Harris-Trump blame gameTo Vance, all of the country’s problems lay at the feet of Harris, in office as VP for 3 1/2 years. “I invite her to use the office that the American people already gave her.”
To Walz, all current problems are left over from Trump’s administration and the Democrats are still cleaning it up. According to Walz, it was “Donald Trump’s failure on COVID that led to the collapse of the economy.”
They left some meat on the bones, however. Walz didn’t rip into Vance’s lie about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, stealing and eating family pets. And Vance didn’t double down on Walz after he was confronted about whether he was in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. (He was in the country that summer, but missed the event by a few months).
“CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation’s” Margaret Brennan moderated the debate, asking questions about climate change, immigration, the economy, abortion, gun laws. housing, health care, families, democracy and the men’s personal qualifications.
Fact-checking falsehoodsThe network decided in advance not to fact-check the statements, something that Walz brought up when he tried to counter some things Vance said, including Minnesota abortion law and whether doctors have to save the life of a baby after a botched abortion.
Politifact, an independent nonprofit, fact-checked the debate live, and reported that Vance’s statement about Walz ending protections in Minnesota for babies born alive is false.
The website caught several other falsehoods:
Trump did not “salvage” the Affordable Care Act, as stated by Vance.Project 2025 does not call for a “registry of pregnancies,” like Walz claimed.Vance’s assertion that Harris let 20 to 25 million undocumented immigrants into the U.S. is false, and she was not appointed “border czar.” Data shows there are closer to 11 million people who have broken immigration laws to be in this country (which could include people repeatedly leaving and reentering).Walz’s claim about record debt under Trump is partly true, but President Joe Biden will match or surpass it by the time he leaves office, Politifact reported.When it comes to performance, I have to give it to Vance. He was smooth and nothing seemed to unsettle him. In contrast, Walz seemed a bit nervous early on. He fumbled the Tiananmen Square question, and seemed baffled before finally admitting he misspoke.
The most heated exchange, if you can call it that, was during the last section about democracy. Moderators asked about the incidents of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. Vance refused to attribute the insurrection to Trump’s rhetoric.
As civil as the two candidates were, Walz said: “This is one that we are miles apart on. This was a threat to our democracy in a way that we had not seen, and it manifested itself because of Donald Trump’s inability to say — he is still saying he didn’t lose the election.”
Vance countered, “It’s really rich for Democratic leaders to say that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy when he peacefully gave over power on January, the 20th, as we have done for 250 years in this country.”
The conversation came at the end of the debate, 90 minutes in, but was most telling. It took this subject to ruffle feathers.
Perhaps that’s most important.manila game
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