The vice presidential debate wasn’t even a close contest. As I’ve been predicting for months, JD Vance absolutely demolished Tim Walz despite having to battle the moderators at the same time. Vance was composed and ready, showing a keen intellect in the face of Walz’s constant flailing and emotional outbursts.
SEE: JD Vance Just Flattens Smug, ‘Fact-Checking’ CBS News Mods
There are going to be a lot of moments that stick out, but for my money, the two best came back to back. When Walz gave a scripted answer about Kamala Harris’ economic plans, Vance was ready.
Absolutely BRUTAL exchange for Tim Walz. JD Vance absolutely shoved him into a locker #VPDebate pic.twitter.com/jcxPA0ClaZ
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 2, 2024
VANCE: You say trust the experts, but those same experts 40 years ago said that if we shipped our manufacturing base off to China, we’d get cheaper goods. They lied about that. They said if we shipped our industrial base off to other countries, to Mexico and elsewhere, it would make the middle class stronger. They were wrong about that.
They were wrong about the idea that if we made America less self-reliant, less productive in our nation, that it would somehow make us better off, and they were wrong about it. And for the first time in a generation, Donald Trump had the wisdom and the courage to say to that bipartisan consensus that we’re not doing anymore. We’re bringing American manufacturing back, we’re going to unleash American energy. We’re going to make more of our own stuff.
That was just the warm-up, though. It was after Walz responded by basically suggesting American voters are stupid for believing Trump is better for the economy that things really heated up.
VANCE: If you notice what Gov. Walz just did is he said, first of all, Donald Trump has to listen to the experts, and then when he acknowledges the experts screwed up, he says, well, Donald Trump didn’t do nearly as good of a job as the statistics show that he did.
WALZ: No, that’s a gross generalization.
VANCE: So what Tim Walz is doing, and honestly, Tim, I think 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 Donald Trump didn’t deliver lower inflation, which of course he did. And then you simultaneously gotta defend Kamala Harris’ atrocious economic record, which has made gas, groceries, and housing unaffordable for American citizens.
I was raised by a woman who would sometimes go into medical debt so she could food on the table in our household. I know what it’s like to not be able to afford the things that you need to afford. We can do so much better. To all of you watching, we can get back to an America that is affordable again, we’ve just got to get back to common sense economic policies.
JD Vance breaking the 4th wall anytime Walz talks has me chuckling pic.twitter.com/3m2bf3Yn8C
— Link Lauren (@itslinklauren) October 2, 2024
At that point, Walz might as well have walked off the stage, but an unbelievable self-implosion was on the way. In the next segment, the governor was asked about a recently uncovered lie where he claimed to be in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre. What followed was genuinely uncomfortable, and it was the moment that this became a no-contest kind of night.
This is one you have to watch. A transcription isn’t going to do it justice, and he was fumbling so much that trying to write it out would be nearly impossible anyway.
CBS: You lied about being in China during Tiananmen Square. What do you say?
Tim Walz: “I used to ride my bike with friends growing up.”
This is completely painful to watch.pic.twitter.com/pDUXkwmJgO
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 2, 2024
Walz tries his best to dodge the question, but once he’s pressed for a straight answer, he self-destructs. After freezing up, he gets tongue-tied and starts rambling before ending with “And from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance,” which had nothing to do with the topic. If you can only watch a few seconds of the above clip, watch the end. It’s that bad.
I expected Vance to do well tonight. I’m not sure I expected Walz to be this bad. Perhaps I should have given the fact that he’s been sidelined on the campaign trail lately. This guy is not vice-presidential material. He’s a know-nothing buffoon.
