VP Debate Night: Vance Cleaned Trumpism, Walz Called Himself Knucklehead

Leah Feiger: I think it adds to it. This is it, the championship has been stolen. Even if you check its details, is it that bad?

Tim Marchman: I don’t think he came out well. I don’t think that…

Leah Feiger: Yes, he didn’t go well because he called himself a knucklehead. That was hard to see. That was JD Vance’s smile time. I couldn’t stop watching him at that moment.

Tim Marchman: Yes, and it’s something to appreciate… If this guy was decorating the lily a little bit, everybody is decorating the lily a little bit, at least at this level of politics, and you really should have a return for that. I think there was a little confusion. I was in the area at the time, I wasn’t in Hong Kong at the time of those particular protests. I wasn’t in Tiananmen Square when the man stood on the floor of the tank, but I was there then. It was a time of great change, as we all remember, the Berlin Wall. There is a way to do that. He seemed completely flat, which was just weird.

Leah Feiger: Obviously, we have to point out, and maybe our beloved presidents can, that Trump is a liar, and compared to his many, many, many whoppers over the years, I could see a funny twist on Walz going, “This is nothing. Let’s talk about the greatest hits.” With the most focused campaign for as long as we can remember, the pivot to social, the pivot to TikTok, they couldn’t get much out of this. Of course, we’re not talking about Springfield. JD Vance was one of the biggest, biggest promoters of all Haitian immigrants, illegal Haitian immigrants eat your friendly neighborhood pets. They eat your dogs and cats. When Springfield came into the conversation, this was an opportunity for Walz to step in, and he did. He mentioned that some of these talks have led to schools having more security, or having to have all these extra tests, but he didn’t go after Vance directly. He didn’t go after Trump directly.

Makena Kelly: This would have been an opportunity for Walz to be like, “Okay, let’s talk about lying and making up. You’re the guy who was on the news last week or whatever week it was, saying we can embellish the news. So you can find out what’s going on in rural America right now because of immigrants.” That it would have been an amazing pivot point, and of course, it didn’t happen.

Tim Marchman: He also had the chance to say that what Vance was saying was still a blatant lie. Vance, as he did throughout the debate, basically took this rhetorical position, distancing himself from Trump, or treating Trump like a crazy uncle, “Hey, we all know what he’s saying, but let’s not worry about that. you say a lot of things.” He supported the allegations that illegal immigrants from Haiti are kidnapping pets and cutting them down, but he presented it as his attempt to bring attention to the huge problem of immigrants pouring into Springfield and overwhelming the hospital system, overwhelming the school system, something that is there for them. There is no evidence literally. People look at the death rates , look at the 911 wait times, there’s no evidence that immigrants are over the hospital system, they need more ESL teachers. That’s a very easy way to raise those issues of blood. Walz missed the opportunity to continue his outrage when the whole issue came up, assuring these people, “These are people who are here legally in this city because the city has jobs, and they don’t have people. doing it, period.” He was very strong in making the point that Trump and Vance’s speech led to bomb threats and all kinds of bad things, but it was, again, to me, an example of him just kind of planting the foundation a little bit. This is not the problem. Really, this is not the problem. He allowed it, I thought, that it was presented as the biggest current problem of the world in a way that didn’t make sense.