Tim Walz Crumbles as J.D. Vance Dominates VP Debate
Walz thought he was ready for J.D. Vance—he was wrong. What started as a debate quickly turned into a one-sided beatdown.
Here’s how it all went down.
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J.D. Vance opened the debate by masterfully introducing himself with confidence, telling the American people that under a Trump administration, the American Dream would once again be attainable.
"I stand here asking to be your vice president with extraordinary gratitude for this country, for the American Dream that made it possible for me to live my dreams," he said. He then made it clear, "If we get better leadership in the White House, if we get Donald Trump back in the White House, the American Dream is going to be attainable once again."
As the debate continued, Vance flipped the script on Tim Walz when Walz attempted to blame Donald Trump for the Iranian threat.
"You yourself just said Iran is as close to a nuclear weapon today as they have ever been. And, Governor Walz, you blame Donald Trump. Who has been the vice president for the last three and a half years? And the answer is your running mate, not mine," Vance fired back.
On the topic of Hurricane Helene, Vance communicated with the American people so well that even Tim Walz nodding in agreement.
He painted a vivid picture of the disaster, saying, "I just saw today, actually, a photograph of two grandparents on a roof with a six-year-old child. And it was the last photograph ever taken of them because the roof collapsed, and those innocent people lost their lives."
Vance expressed his heartfelt sympathy and promised, "I commit that when Donald Trump is president, again, the government will put the citizens of this country first when they suffer from a disaster."
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On climate change, Vance didn’t hold back, telling Walz to his face that if Kamala Harris truly cared about the issue, she would be pushing for more manufacturing and energy production in America because it’s cleaner to do so here.
"If the Democrats, particularly Kamala Harris and her leadership, really believe that climate change is serious, what they would be doing is more manufacturing and more energy production in the United States of America," Vance argued. "So clearly, Kamala Harris herself doesn't believe her own rhetoric on this."
Vance got Tim Walz’s head hanging in shame when he exposed the executive orders the Biden-Harris admin signed that upended what Trump did to keep the border safe.
“We have a historic immigration crisis because Kamala Harris started and said that she wanted to undo all of Donald Trump's border policies. 94 executive orders suspending deportations, decriminalizing illegal aliens, massively increasing the asylum fraud that exists in our system that has opened the floodgates,” Vance lamented.
“And what it's meant is that a lot of fentanyl is coming into our country. I had a mother who struggled with opioid addiction and has gotten clean. I don't want people who are struggling with addiction to be deprived of their second chance because Kamala Harris let in fentanyl into our communities at record levels. So you've got to stop the bleeding.”
At one point, Vance’s microphone was cut off by CBS News when he began refuting their fact-check on the subject of Springfield, Ohio, and Haitian immigrants.
CBS News said they had more topics to get to, but the apparent reality is that they were getting uncomfortable with Vance confronting their “fact-check” head-on.
Vance continued to deliver a sharp critique of Harris’s economic policies, pointing out the rising costs of essentials.
"If Kamala Harris has such great plans for how to address middle-class problems, then she ought to do them now," he said, emphasizing the 25% increase in food costs and the 60% increase in housing costs.
Vance then dropped a series of brutal fact-checks on Walz.
“Governor, you say trust the experts, but those same experts for 40 years 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 own 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, we're not doing it anymore. We're bringing American manufacturing back. We're unleashing American energy. We're going to make more of our own stuff.”
As the debate wore on, Vance savagely cornered Walz on his economic contradictions.
“Tim, I think you got a tough job here because you've got to play whack-a-mole. 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 that Donald Trump didn't deliver lower inflation, which, of course, he did,” Vance pointed out.
“And then you've simultaneously got to defend Kamala Harris's atrocious economic record, which has made gas, groceries, and housing unaffordable for American citizens... We can do so much better. To all of you watching, we can get back to an America that's affordable again. We just got to get back to common sense economic principles.”
Walz found himself in a tough spot when confronted about a false claim regarding his presence in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre.
After a two-minute rant, Walz admitted that he wasn’t actually there during the tragedy, exposing a major inconsistency in his narrative.
Video: @CollinRugg
Vance continued to dominate, shredding Walz for saying that the First Amendment doesn't protect “misinformation.”
Walz said that claim was false, but unfortunately for him, we got it on video.
Clip: @CollinRugg
As the debate neared its end, Walz awkwardly appealed to viewers who were “still up” and missed “Dancing With the Stars” to watch the debate.
Things got worse when he boasted about endorsements from figures like Dick Cheney and Taylor Swift.
Throughout the entire two minutes, Walz totally fell flat, making his closing statements a complete waste of time.
Vance, on the other hand, ended the night with a bang, delivering a stunning critique of Kamala Harris.
"She’s been the vice president for three and a half years. Day one was 1,400 days ago. And her policies have made these problems worse," Vance said.
He emphasized that the American people would not achieve their full dreams under the current broken leadership and called for a new direction.
"We need a president who has already done this once before and did it well."
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