2 months ago
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Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Republican vice presidential nominee Senator JD Vance shake hands at the end of the Vice Presidential debate hosted by CBS in New York, US. (Picture credit: Reuters)
Tim
Walz
and JD
Vance
exchanged barbs on the campaign trail, despite maintaining a surprisingly calm and policy-focused discussion at the
vice presidential debate
on Wednesday.
Known for his assertive support of
Republican nominee
Donald
Trump
, JD Vance caught many off guard with his cordial tone during the debate. However, he quickly reverted to a more combative style afterwards, commenting on his opponent's verbal missteps.
In response, Walz criticized Vance for not directly addressing the outcome of the
2020 election
.
During the debate, Walz asked Vance to state the winner, but Vance did not provide a clear answer. Walz said, "The moment that really stuck out is, I just asked the simplest of all questions that every single American should be able to answer. I asked him if Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. He refused to answer."
The
Minnesota governor
described the debate as "spirited" but labelled Vance a "slick talker" who made false claims about Trump. Walz also targeted Vance's stance on the 2020 election, calling it "disqualifying." He said, "Understand in that 88th minute last night, with that damning non-answer, Senator Vance made it clear: he will always make a different choice than Mike Pence made."
Despite being credited with a strong debate performance, Vance seemed to avoid discussing the 2020 election post-debate. Instead, he focused on criticising Harris for
inflation
during a speech in Michigan, only addressing the 2020 issue in a Q&A. He accused the media of being "obsessed" with the past election, saying, "I'm focused on the election of 33 days from now because I want to throw Kamala Harris out of office and get back to commonsense economic policies."
Vance also mocked Walz for a reported comment about
school shooters
, suggesting that Walz misspoke about being "friends with school shooters". He quipped, "probably only the third or fourth dumbest comment Tim Walz made that night."
The debate on Tuesday reached an estimated 43 million viewers, which was less than the 58 million who tuned in to watch Kamala Harris debate Mike Pence in 2020. Harris, who succeeded Pence as vice president, is now running for the presidency against Trump, and their recent presidential debate attracted 67 million viewers.
