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The Vance-Walz Debate: A Master Class in Skill and Class, and a Gaffe for the Ages

By Al Perrotta Published on October 2, 2024

Last night’s vice presidential debate was played on Tim Walz’s turf, with two refs in the bag for him — and still J.D. Vance picked Walz and the moderators apart like he was Patrick Mahomes playing against three kids from the Pee Wee league.

Vance Was Masterful

The major takeaway is just how good J.D. Vance was. Much of America got its first real look at the man who may soon be a heartbeat from the presidency, and he showed he had the goods. 

What made his dismantling of Walz so interesting to watch was not only how he — as we predicted — turned hostile questions and dishonest Walz responses into strong counterattacks, but he did with a charm and grace that wouldn’t be out of place in a Jane Austen novel. He took such pains to be warm that he nearly lit himself on fire.

What effect Vance’s approach had on viewers, we don’t know yet. But it did seem to put a damper on Walz’s attacks. Walz’s answer to his first question was an angry blast against Donald Trump. But after Vance began his charm offensive, Walz never regained that vitriol, even finding himself often agreeing with Vance, nodding along in approval to what he was saying. If Walz was supposed to be a pit bull, it seemed Vance turned him into a poodle.

You can’t help but wonder what impact Vance might have on Trump in the Oval Office. 

Walz Admits He’s Sometimes a “Knucklehead”

Tim Walz talked a good game — until he didn’t. He spent the night dishing out his folksy, regular-guy shtick while blatantly lying about his own positions, Kamala Harris’s record, and, of course, Donald Trump’s.

Walzed faced tough questions he simply did not answer. The one time the moderators pushed him, he fell apart. When asked why he lied about being in Asia during the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, he mumbled and stumbled, talking about riding bikes in his neighborhood, dedicating himself to serving people, and admitting, “I am a knucklehead at times.”

Even within his answer was a new lie: Walz said he had gone to Hong Kong during the protests that led to the massacre. Except, as Jack Posobiec noted, “He didn’t travel to Hong Kong until months after the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Also, Hong Kong was NOT part of China until the handover in 1997.”

Another part of his uncomfortable answer also raises an eyebrow.

https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1841293978097893829

What exactly did the Chinese teach you, Tim?

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Walz lied repeatedly about Minnesota’s law allowing unlimited abortion, insisting it did not allow abortions up to birth or remove requirements for doctors to preserve the life of a baby who survives a botched procedure. When Vance asked him to specifically point out where he was wrong in what he was saying about it, Walz got flustered and claimed Vance’s statement had been fact-checked in the presidential debate. (Incorrectly, as it so happens.)

Walz also lied about the death of Amber Thurman. The young woman did not die because Georgia’s pro-life law somehow denied her proper medical care; she died because she had a chemical abortion and parts of the baby remained inside her, leading to an infection. The side effects and lack of follow-up by the abortionists is what killed her.

On Guns, Walz Shoots Himself in the Foot: “I Am Friends with School Shooters”

Walz tried to come across as sensible and reasonable on the topic of gun control. But he let the cat out of the bag when he said, “Sometimes it’s just the guns.” What gun has walked into a school all by itself and opened fire?

He also inadvertently made the case against gun control by bringing up the fact that Finland has a high number of guns, but not the problem with gun violence America does. So it’s not the guns. Other factors are at play, as Vance was quick to point out. Vance also reminded voters that up to 90% of gun violence entails weapons that are already illegal to own, and Kamala Harris’s open-borders policy has led to a flood of illegal weapons pouring into the country.  

That was another example of a question framed to help Walz which ended up hurting Harris.

We can talk more about Walz’s answers, but who are we kidding? Whatever else Walz said Tuesday night, it’s going to be overshadowed by this beauty for the ages: “I’ve become friends with school shooters.”

Within minutes of the debate, X was already filling with memes mocking Walz’s comment.

Plus, it’s a fair bet social media will be abuzz with memes featuring his crazed goo-goo eyes.

And we have to say, the J.D. Vance look? Very guest star on The Love Boat. You know, guy who melts the heart of Adrienne Barbeau by the time they reach port? Ah, but will Vance melt suburban women who are still on the fence about how to vote?

Ridiculous Bias Swatted Away

For well over the scheduled 90 minutes, Vance and Walz debated the issues. Or at least the issues the Democrats wanted to talk about. As predicted, a question about the damage from Hurricane Helene was turned into a discussion about climate change. There were questions about “reproductive rights,” gun violence in schools, childcare, and, of course, CBS News had to end with a question about Trump challenging the 2020 election results, as well as what took place on January 6.

Why? Voters have been pretty clear they don’t care about those things. They care about street crime going through the roof. They care about how their kids suffered under COVID mandates and the toll those forced vaccinations will have on their children’s health. They care about billions going to Ukraine while North Carolina drowns.

Twice the candidates were asked about the cost of housing. but not about the prices of gasoline or groceries or car insurance. And even there, the moderators fought back against Vance’s assertion that massive amounts of illegal immigration are driving housing prices up. It’s not complicated; it comes down to a little thing the kids like to call “supply and demand.” Or as Vance put it, “Millions more people, without millions of extra houses, will increase prices.”

A question about illegal immigration didn’t touch the damage wrought by Harris’s open border. Instead it focused on whether Trump would separate migrant families. Again, Vance masterfully flipped the question onto Harris.

“Right now in this country, we have 320,000 children that the DHS has effectively lost,” he said. “The real family separation policy is unfortunately Kamala Harris’s wide open southern border.”

How come the moderators asked no questions about Ukraine? Or rising antisemitism? Or sex changes for criminal illegal immigrants? Or men in women’s sports? Falling education scores? Walz talked about “book bans.” Why was there no question about the fight over porn in schools? Or parents’ rights to know what’s going on with their kids in those schools? Why no questions about Walz letting Minneapolis burn during the race riots of 2020? CBS carefully avoided questions that would highlight the radicalness of Walz and Harris. 

One particularly egregious bit of election interference came when Walz lied about the situation in Springfield, Ohio, where migrants are eating pets and animals from public parks. And the moderators, in clear violation of their own fact-check rule, added a line supporting Walz’s position, then tried to move on without letting Vance respond.

Vance called them out for violating the rules, effectively responding nonetheless — until they cut off his microphone.

Silencing the opposition. It’s what the Left does best, as Vance would later point out.

Vance’s Defense of Free Speech

In response to one of the moderators gifting Walz the last question on Donald Trump as a “threat to democracy,” Vance made an impassioned plea:  

We do actually have a threat to democracy in this country. It is the threat of censorship. It is Americans casting aside lifelong friendships because of disagreements over politics. It’s big technology companies silencing their fellow citizens, and it’s Kamala Harris saying that, rather than debate and persuade her fellow Americans, she would like to censor people who engage in misinformation.

When Walz tried to respond by saying, “You can’t yell ‘fire’ in a movie theater!” Vance countered.

Who Won the Debate?

Pollster Frank Luntz tweeted that his focus group last night selected a clear winner: J.D. Vance.

Only five of the people in the group had been leaning Trump-Vance before the debate.

Even the anti-Trump networks were giving Vance the nod, and expressing dismay at Walz’s performance — particularly his “very cringey” answer when asked about lying about his whereabouts during the Tiananmen Square massacre.

But the real question is will the debate move the polls?

We’ll see in the coming days. But certainly, last night’s event highlighted the distinction between the Trump-Vance ticket and the Harris-Walz ticket. Which duo has the “right stuff” to deal with the dramatic crises enveloping our nation and the world?

If selecting a running mate is any indication of whose judgment is more sound, Trump emerges as the clear and obvious winner.

We will have more thoughts and reactions on the debate later today in Al’s Afternoon Tea. Look for it to be served at its usual time: 5 p.m. Eastern.

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.