Welcome to the post-debate edition of From the Politics Desk, a newsletter where we analyze every move in tonight’s showdown between Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
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A Nice Night in the Midwest: Vance and Waltz Agree to Disagree, Mainly in Civil Debate
Written by Henry J. Gomez and Alan Smith
NEW YORK — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz believes his vice presidential rival, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, wants to solve the country’s immigration crisis, but former President Donald Trump I questioned whether he was really doing that.
Mr. Vance acknowledged that Mr. Walz also wants to resolve the issue, but questioned whether Vice President Kamala Harris would really do so.
Walz agreed with “a lot of what Sen. Vance said” that Americans don’t trust Republicans on abortion. Vance said he and Walz “probably agree that we need to do better” in addressing gun violence. And Walz acknowledged that he “agrees” with much of what Vance said about decades of trade policy that has allowed manufacturing jobs to be moved offshore.
Tuesday night’s debate between Walz and Vance went on and on, meeting in person for the first time and giving a nice, textbook Midwestern performance. Feints at reaching an agreement served as rhetorical fig leaves, attacks that, though politely delivered, often gave way to more cuts.
Vice presidential candidates Vance is a right-wing Republican and Walz is a progressive Democrat aiming to appeal to moderates, but they use the words “I agree,” “I agree,” and “I don’t disagree” to explain their commonalities. I used that word over a dozen times. Share.
With early voting in several states and Election Day just five weeks away, Tuesday’s showdown, hosted by CBS News, was an opportunity for Mr. Vance and Mr. Walz to make their campaign closing arguments. Ta. Without a changeup from Trump, who has resisted the idea of discussing it with Harris again, this could be the last moment this race is widely broadcast in prime time.
But TV viewers expecting a ferocious Vice Presidential attack dog instead saw several puppies looking for affection. In some ways, the debate was reminiscent of the heated clash between vice presidential candidates Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman 24 years ago. Cheney, as hated by the left at the time as Vance is today, escaped scrutiny. He and Republican George W. Bush won the first of two terms that fall.
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Key takeaways from Vance and Waltz’s discussion
Written by Sahil Kapur
It wasn’t really about Vance or Waltz. It quickly became clear that the two prominent politicians on stage were simply surrogates for the vice presidential candidate, using the questions as a means to attack their chief rival, and often out. It’s a way to avoid attacking each other personally.
Walz directed his first question about Iran’s attack on Israel to President Trump’s age, saying, “Donald Trump, who is almost 80 years old, talking about crowd size is not what we need at this point.” said. He went on to attack “the capricious leadership of Donald Trump” around the world.
Vance replied: “Who has been your Vice President for the past three and a half years? And the answer is your Vice President, not mine. Donald Trump has consistently made the world safer. .”
Putting the economic record under the microscope: Walz was preparing a case to attack President Trump on the economy, one of the strongest issues for Republican candidates in polls.
“Kamala Harris’ first day was Donald Trump’s failure to deal with COVID-19, which led to an economic collapse. We were already in a manufacturing recession before COVID-19, with about 10 million people out of work. “The percentage is the highest since the Great Depression,” Walz said.
Mr. Vance attacked Mr. Biden and Mr. Harris’ economic record as “terrible” and defended Mr. Trump.
“Honestly, Tim, I think you got a tough job here because you had to play whack-a-mole,” he said, adding that Walz believes the Trump economy has improved wages. and blamed the government for having to “pretend” that inflation was falling.
Vance defends Fripp over past criticisms of Trump: including saying Trump could become “America’s Hitler” and criticizing Trump’s economic performance as president When asked for an explanation, Vance was fully prepared to answer.
“Of course, I disagree with the president sometimes, but I’ve also been very open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump. First of all, I was wrong about… “He believed some media articles that turned out to be dishonest fabrications of his record,” Vance said, overstepping territory he and his campaign have talked about in responding to media interviews and articles. Ta.
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