By James Oliphant and Gram Slattery
(Reuters) -U.S. Senator JD (NASDAQ:) Vance, Republican Donald Trump’s decide as his vice presidential operating mate, squared off in opposition to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who Democrat Kamala Harris tapped to be her No. 2, in a nationally televised debate on Tuesday.
The controversy is probably going the ultimate one of many 2024 presidential marketing campaign, probably giving it some further weight forward of the Nov. 5 election.
Listed below are some takeaways from the occasion in New York:
BOB AND WEAVE AT THE OPENING BELL
The primary query of the controversy associated to the continued battle within the Center East, asking each males if they’d help a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran to disrupt the event of the latter’s nuclear program.
Neither candidate was desirous to reply.
A visibly nervous Walz dodged the query, pivoting to a critique of Trump’s document throughout his 4 years in workplace.
“What’s fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter,” Walz stated. “It’s clear, and the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago, a nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment.”
Vance appeared to rib Walz for not addressing the query head on, however then segued into an outline of his biography.
“My mother required food assistance for periods of her life,” stated Vance, who grew up in a working-class Ohio family.
Vance did finally circle again to the query, saying a second Trump administration would help Israel’s resolution on the matter. However not earlier than he supplied an prolonged protection of Trump’s overseas coverage, characterizing his time in workplace as terribly peaceable.
Within the opening trade, at the least, the candidates have been much less desirous to dive into coverage particulars than they have been in litigating Trump’s legacy and introducing themselves to People.
MAGA SMOOTHIE
The Vance on stage was the one the Trump marketing campaign had in thoughts when Trump chosen him as his No. 2 in July.
The concept then was that the 40-year-old first-term senator and best-selling writer may function an articulate and rational voice for Trump’s Make American Nice Once more motion in addition to maybe at some point turn into a generational torchbearer.
However as an alternative Vance had a rocky roll-out on the marketing campaign path, typically turning into the goal of on-line scorn and mockery whereas most frequently serving as Trump’s assault canine. The headlines have been principally unfavorable, and his approval rankings suffered.
On Tuesday, Vance was affable, cordial and composed, even sometimes complimentary towards Walz (if not Harris).
He spoke about making the American dream “attainable as soon as once more.” He deftly answered a question on climate change by making an argument for increased U.S. energy production. He detailed the basis for Trump’s aggressive protectionist trade policies, saying the experts were “wrong” that increased foreign trade would boost the U.S. middle class.
In doing so, Vance seemed to be succeeding at a vice presidential running mate’s primary task: Making the candidate at the top of the ticket more palatable to the viewers at home — no easy job when it comes to Trump.
It was clear as the evening progressed, that was the goal of the Trump campaign in this debate, not trying to smear Walz. As one strategist said before the debate, people don’t vote for the vice presidential nominee.
THE ‘HARRIS ADMINISTRATION’
Joe Biden has been president of the U.S. for almost four years, but you would never have known that listening to Vance. And that was by design.
Early in the debate, Vance continually implied that Harris, as vice president, has been a primary decision maker in the White House on issues such as immigration and the war in Gaza. At one point, Vance referred to the “administration of Kamala Harris” and later he referred to when Harris “came into office.”
It is a strategy the Trump campaign has long employed on the campaign trail — an attempt to make Harris inherit Biden’s political liabilities. In his debate with Harris, Trump largely failed to make that connection for viewers at home. But at rallies since then, he has repeatedly suggested that Harris has had more than three years to fix the nation’s problems.
Vance said something similar in a debate answer on the economy. “If Kamala Harris has such nice plans for learn how to deal with center class issues, then she should do them now,” he stated.
It’s a tactic that has not fully borne fruit, nevertheless. Opinion polls have proven that voters largely don’t blame Harris for Biden’s financial and immigration insurance policies, permitting her to chop into Trump’s benefits on these points.
ABORTION
Vance tried to ship a “compassionate conservative” message on abortion to beat back perceptions that the Republican ticket’s hardline stance on reproductive rights could cost them votes.
He sidestepped some of his past remarks on the issue, including previously saying he did not support exceptions to abortion bans for rape and incest.
He made the issue personal, saying he knew “young women who had unplanned pregnancies and decided to terminate those pregnancies because they feel like they didn’t have any other options” and that “one of them is actually very dear to me, and I know she’s watching tonight, and I love you.”
He denied Republicans would create a federal registry to track pregnancies, despite the conservative Project 2025 policy proposals calling for the government to track abortions and miscarriages. Trump has said Project 2025 does not represent his views.
Vance managed to articulate Trump’s policies in a much more sympathetic and articulate way than his running mate.
“I want us as a Republican Party to be pro-family in the fullest sense of the word,” Vance stated.
Walz additionally successfully argued for the Democrats’ place on the difficulty, describing particular person instances of girls who have been endangered and even died resulting from restrictive abortion laws.
However given his marketing campaign’s polling benefit on the difficulty, he would have preferred a transparent win from the trade.
ROUGH PATCHES
Each Walz and Vance tried to clarify away previous statements that undercut their credibility.
For Walz, it was media stories this week that he was not in Hong Kong in June 1989 in the course of the lethal rebellion at Tiananmen Sq. in China, regardless of having stated a number of occasions he was there on a instructing journey. In reality, Walz was in Nebraska on the time and didn’t journey to Hong Kong till August of that yr.
Requested concerning the deceptive declare, Walz delivered a meandering reply about rising up in a small city and being elected to Congress.
“I’ve not been good, and I’m a knucklehead at occasions,” Walz stated.
Walz, a former highschool soccer coach, might have been making an attempt to run down the clock. Lastly, when pressed by the CBS Information moderator, he stated, “I got there that summer and misspoke on this.”
Vance was once more requested to reconcile his previous criticism of Trump, together with evaluating him to Adolf Hitler, along with his present place as No. 2 on the Republican ticket.
“I was wrong about Donald Trump,” Vance stated, including Trump “delivered for the American people” on a whole lot of issues “that I didn’t think he’d be able to deliver on.”
THE BRAWL THAT WASN’T
The controversy was anticipated to be an unpleasant one.
Vance’s advisers stated the senator was going to tear into Walz for misrepresenting his navy document and letting Minneapolis burn throughout riots in 2020. Walz was going to color Vance as a spineless sycophant who modified his core beliefs to please Trump.
As an alternative, the candidates engaged in a principally cordial trade, a jarring juxtaposition from the contentious showdown between Harris and Trump simply three weeks in the past.
The vice presidential candidates continuously conceded that the opposite made good factors. They thanked one another repeatedly.
“Whether you vote for me or vote for Tim Walz, I just want to say I’m so proud to be doing this,” Vance stated.
After the controversy ended, the 2 males embraced, shaking fingers and slapping one another on the again.
In some methods, it was a window into American politics earlier than Trump burst onto the scene in 2016 and embraced the advert hominem and typically racist assaults which have turn into commonplace.
The dearth of any really heated second means the controversy will doubtless be rapidly forgotten, nevertheless, as are many vice presidential debates.