The first televised debate between the vice presidential candidates of the United States, JD Vance and Tim Walz, left aired last night on Cbs while it was already night in Italy, it did not provide any major twists.
The almost 100 minutes available to the two deputies of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were dominated by internal politics and a climate of general cordiality, without low blows or particular recriminations.
Vance and Walz have both focused their attacks on their respective presidential candidates in the upcoming November 5 elections, attempting to highlight the political differences between their opponent and his leader.
Ohio’s Republican senator has repeatedly attacked Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration and border security, while Minnesota’s Democratic governor has harshly criticized former President Donald Trump on abortion rights.
Despite expectations, Walz was less brilliant than Vance, who presented himself in a decidedly different way than the New York tycoon.
In fact, unlike Trump, his deputy has always correctly pronounced Kamala Harris’s first name, then addressing his opponent with the title of “governor”, without indulging in personal attacks and avoiding complaining about the interventions of the moderators in the debate, while the former president was busy criticizing them live from his Truth social profile.
For his part, Walz didn’t appear completely comfortable on stage until he began attacking Trump, calling him “a liar who ignores experts and rejects truths he deems unfavorable.”
The debate began with a question on the ongoing escalation in the Middle East with Iran’s attack against Israel last night, however the moderators of the CbsNorah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan, devoted the evening almost entirely to domestic issues, without even asking the vice-presidential candidates what their position is on US support for Ukraine in the war against Russia. But what did the two talk about?
January 6, 2021
The most “divisive” moment of an evening of fair play aired when Walz grilled Vance about the January 6, 2021 insurrection and Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 election.
“Did you lose the 2020 election?” the Democratic governor of Minnesota asked the Republican senator from Ohio directly. “Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance replied, however, dodging his opponent’s attempt to make him admit a reality that his leader continues to reject. “This is a completely unfounded response,” Walz retorted.
Even later, however, Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate tried to avoid any reference to the violent assault by the former president’s supporters on the Capitol in Washington on the day in which Congress met to officially count the Electoral College votes and certify Trump’s victory. Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
“What happened on January 6th? Joe Biden became president; Donald Trump has left the White House,” said Vance, who then attacked the Democrats by recalling the 2016 presidential elections.
“In 2016, Hillary Clinton claimed that Donald Trump had let Vladimir Putin buy the elections because the Russians had purchased around 500 thousand dollars worth of advertising on Facebook,” declared the senator from Ohio, avoiding dwelling on the fact that, unlike of Trump, Clinton admitted defeat and did not attempt to interfere in the counting of votes. “There were no Facebook ads on January 6,” Walz replied, presenting the balance of the former president’s behavior.
“He lost the election and refused to admit it. One hundred and forty police officers were attacked at the Capitol that day, some with the American flag, and many died later,” added Kamala Harris’ running mate. “Democracy is bigger than winning an election.”
At that point Vance tried to back away again, bringing the debate to the topic of censorship on social media but each time Walz reacted by claiming that Trump was already laying the foundations to also reject the outcome of the November elections in the event of the defeat of the Republicans . “Here we are four years later, in the same boat,” underlined the Democratic governor of Minnesota. “The winner must be the winner. All this has to stop. It’s tearing our country apart.”
Immigration
Walz then attacked Trump becoming on the presidential debate with Kamala Harris, in which the former president spread fake news about Haitian immigrants who would eat the pets of residents of Springfield, Ohio, news denied live on television by the debate moderators, provoking the anger of the Republican tycoon . The Democratic governor of Minnesota accused Vance of being the one who spread this false claim.
“There were consequences,” Walz stressed, recalling how Ohio Republican governor Mike DeWine was forced to send state police to Springfield to ensure the safety of children following a series of bomb threats.
“The people I care about most in Springfield are the American citizens,” the senator responded cynically. In the Ohio city and other similar locations, Trump’s running mate added, “schools are overcrowded, hospitals are overcrowded, housing is totally unaffordable” due to the influx of migrants.
But, as the moderator of the Cbs Margaret Brennan, the senator forgot to specify that at least 12 thousand Haitian immigrants living in Springfield are in the United States legally.
The clash over the fake news spread by Trump, however, was only a step in the confrontation between Vance and Walz on the thorny issue of immigration, on which the Republican vice-presidential candidate harshly attacked Kamala Harris, often calling her President Joe’s “border czar” Biden.
In fact, the White House entrusted the US vice president with the task of “addressing the root causes” of immigration from Central American countries in 2021, a task completely disregarded by Harris, according to Trump and the Republicans.
However, Walz responded to these criticisms by accusing his opponents of having thwarted a bipartisan bill on border security presented to Congress earlier this year, stating that the former president did not want to resolve the issue for mere electoral purposes. “We could come together and solve this problem if we didn’t let Donald Trump continue to make it a problem,” Walz charged.
Abortion
However, the issue on which the Democratic governor of Minnesota beat the most was abortion, an issue on which both candidates appeared very prepared.
For his part, Vance argued that, given the profound heterogeneity of the United States, the regulation of pregnancy termination should be delegated as much as possible to individual states, as has actually been the case for a few years after the overturning of the Roe v. Wade by the Washington Supreme Court.
“We have a large, diverse country and California has a different view on this than Georgia,” the senator remarked.
“Will the states decide what is right for Texas and what may not be right for Washington? That’s not how it works,” Walz responded. “These are fundamental human rights. We have seen maternal mortality skyrocket in Texas, surpassing many other countries in the world.”
Vance, however, managed to wriggle out of it, saying that Republicans must focus on promoting “family-friendly” policies, including access to housing and fertility treatments.
So the Democratic governor of Minnesota then had to deny the fake news spread by Trump according to which Walz would be in favor of abortion even in the ninth month of pregnancy.
“In Minnesota, what we did was reinstate Roe v. Wade,” Kamala Harris’ vice presidential candidate reiterated, recalling several stories of women who died or had health problems due to state bans against abortion. “We made sure to put women in charge of their own health care.”
Weapons
Another topic at the center of the debate then concerned gun control, which the two candidates approached in a constructive way, in particular on the desire to limit violence in schools. But the question of how to solve the problem remained unresolved.
Calling “Kamala Harris’ open borders” policy a driver of gun violence, Vance acknowledged that it was a more complicated issue, citing drug use and a lack of support for those with mental health issues.
“Sometimes (the problem, ed.) is just the weapons,” Walz intervened, repeating: “It’s just the weapons.” The Democratic governor of Minnesota, however, agreed with his opponent that Congress “should consider all issues” related to this issue. “This idea of stigmatizing mental health: just because you have a mental health problem doesn’t mean you’re violent,” he later added.
However, both said they were concerned about the schools’ response to the threat of shootings. At this point, however, Vance returned to talking about the topic as if it were a question of stemming a natural catastrophe rather than resolving a political issue. “Unfortunately, I think we need to increase security in our schools,” the senator said. “We need to make doors close better and doors and windows be more resistant.”
In response, instead calling for stricter restrictions on guns, Walz ironically addressed the audience: “Do you want your children’s schools to look like fortresses?”
Who won?
Despite the irony and harsh attacks on their respective leaders, the cordiality with which the confrontation took place was crowned by the final moment of the broadcast, when Vance and Walz shook hands and remained chatting for a while away from the microphones , joined by their wives.
Overall, no clear winner emerged but, according to an instant poll conducted by SSRS among observers of the debate on behalf of CNN, registered voters who followed the debate were split. For 51 percent of viewers, the Republican senator from Ohio did better than his Democratic opponent, who convinced 49 percent of observers.
