American politics, beyond Donald Trump. For about 90 minutes, viewers were given a glimpse of it in the vice president’s Tuesday interview.
And it wasn’t just the kind cheering and arm-slapping after the debate between Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz, the gentle exchange was like a throwback to a bygone era.
And in terms of falsehoods: the candidates certainly brought something to stretch their noses, albeit more modestly in quantity and quality than in recent American politics.
Americans have been given a taste of Trumpism, minus Trump. His junior running mate, Vance, favored the same anti-trade, anti-immigration, pro-shoring policies that rose to the party, even floating the type of family support payments that may be made hurt the previous generation Republicans.
But he did so without Trump’s pot-pourri of non-sequiturs and putdowns; Vance countered with the alacrity one might expect from a former editor of the Yale Law Review who cited philosophers of religion in his 6,700 word essay in conversion to Catholicism.
In a repeating pattern on Tuesday, one candidate will praise something the other said, then oppose the other half.
Picking one example in closing, Walz said, “I enjoyed today’s debate and I think there was a lot in common here.” Vance replied: “Me too, man.”
The early consensus of pundits online is that Vance had the better night. Walz tripped early, recovered, but kept getting hurt more than his opponent, including the wince-inducing: “I’ve become friends with school shooters.”
During Tuesday’s CBS News Vice Presidential Debate, when Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz asked Republican running mate JD Vance if Donald Trump had lost the 2020 presidential election, Vance said he was ‘focusing on the future’ – prompting a rebuke. from the Walz.
Vance avoids the basic question: Who won the 2020 election?
However, the truth remains: American politics has not moved away from Donald Trump. He is still standing firmly at the top of it.
A reminder of this came late in the debate, when attempts to steal the 2020 election came up, and Vance got an unpleasant reminder of why he was there.
Trump’s last vice president did not allow him to cancel the election, refusing Trump’s pressure, and defying the demands of the angry mob that called for him to be hanged on Jan. 6, 2021.
“That’s why Mike Pence isn’t on this stage,” Walz said.
Then Kamala Harris’ partner refers to Vance’s statement that he would not confirm the 2020 election and ask a question that Trump hates.
“Did you lose the 2020 election?” Walz asked. “Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance replied. To which Walz said: “That’s a non-answer.”
Vance tried to dismiss the opposition to Trump’s election as a self-serving process, pointing out that, in the end, on Jan. 20, 2021, Joe Biden became president anyway.
Vance expressed a different reaction to this; he promised to shake hands, after the debate, and again after the election, and root for the success of his opponents if they won.
It felt familiar briefly.
An embellishment of Walz’s history
Candidates dance around problematic parts of the political record. On health care, Vance tried to credit Trump with saving Obamacare — the plan Trump famously, and violently, tried to end, and failed. one Senate vote short.
On abortion, he repeated Trump’s recent position: it’s up to the states, and any state ban should include exceptions for rape, incest, and health issues. Vance spoke of a friend in an abusive relationship who had an abortion and said of her, “I love you.”
Left unsaid? Vance’s one position that abortion should be illegal throughout the country. How would Republican administrations answer detailed questions – like the export of abortion pills? It didn’t appear.
Vance accused Democrats of outsourcing US jobs – yet investing in domestic manufacturing facilities it explodes; if there’s one point of commonality between the parties, lately, it’s that some trade protection is good.
The National asks US political analysts Tia Mitchell, Chris Cillizza and CBC News reporter Katie Simpson to break down the key moments of the US vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance and how it could affect the presidential race.
The migration produced another heated exchange. Walz accused his opponent of endangering Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, by lying about them, making death threats.
The governor of the republic who lives in the area he even criticized his speech. Vance responded that the increase in immigration needs attention, as it concerns American communities, from social services to housing; to cross borders have it went down a lot in recent months.
Walz’s lie paper was thrown at him.
In his case, it went beyond the normal process of policy divergence; it involved reviewing pieces of his personal story.
Walz went filled with air his details experience China: He has claimed, falsely, more than once, that he was in Hong Kong during the 1989 Chinese student uprising.
Walz also brought up the military rank he retired from and, amid political controversy over IVF access, said his family had mistakenly used it. that treatment.
When pressed by the president about his 1989 consistency, Walz changed the subject to discuss his humble upbringing, and his frequent travels to Asia.
“I will talk a lot. I will be caught up in speeches,” he said. The moderators pressed him again and he got angry: “I got there that summer and I didn’t speak well.”
VP interviews rarely change the election
At a different time, these kinds of biographical embellishments might have been the subject of the election of the year. Not this year.
The good news for Democrats, tonight, is that the vice presidential debate doesn’t usually change the election.
Good news for Republicans – especially those who like Trump’s policies, but not him: they have to live briefly in the same universe.
While the candidates disagreed on gun control, Vance responded to a story told by Walz, about his son witnessing a shooting while playing volleyball.
“I didn’t know,” Vance said. “I’m sorry about that. Christ, have mercy. That’s awful.”
It’s not clear whether Trumpism will outlast Trump, or pack the same electoral punch with voters; but we have seen what it might look like.