If you didn’t get a chance to watch, you’ve probably heard by now that JD Vance cooked Tim Walz at Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate. That wasn’t necessarily surprising to anyone who has been paying attention. Vance’s time on the interview circuit has shown how formidable he is in confrontational situations. The contrast with Walz, who has largely avoided questions throughout the campaign and resorted to spazzing out on stage like he’s on speed, couldn’t have been greater.
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WATCH: JD Vance Absolutely Cooks Tim Walz, Then Kamala’s Running Mate Implodes
It wasn’t just that Vance won on the merits, though. It was how he did it. In an era where so many Republicans have convinced themselves the bull-in-a-china-shop approach is the only way to fight, the Ohio senator took a far more precise and effective strategy. Despite the moderators’ ridiculous bias, he stayed calm and collected, systematically taking down Walz point after point. Even on the no-win issues where Vance’s only hope was to get to the next topic, he stuck the landing and did just that.
The result of that was predictable in the press. While many “journalists” took to social media to give nuanced takes about the debate, a sure-fire admission Walz lost, MSNBC’s hosts took the simpler path melting down on air.
WALLACE: It’s the audacity (shouting). I agree with you that we’re in year nine, and no one knows how to cover the audacity. The audacity is that, is that someone should just stop him, stop, stop. Are you F-ing kidding me? And they should, they should have dropped that F-bomb, right? I mean, they should have just, are we, this is a debate. This may be the only chance someone has to see the difference.
The hilarity of that clip is self-obvious. Wallace losing her mind is all the proof you need that Vance mopped the floor with Walz. She’s claiming the moderators should have shut down the debate by flinging obscenities at the Ohio senator because of the “audacity” shown in, I don’t know, actually answering the questions well.
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Her flailing is also educational in that it tells us a heck of a lot about how Democrats view American voters. In the eyes of the left, you are too stupid to make your own electoral decisions. Instead, you need to be saved from yourself by having news networks shut down debate and censor the other side. Nothing Vance said on stage last night warranted being asked “Are you (obscenity) kidding me?”
But again, the “threat to democracy” crowd doesn’t care about the substance. They believe they are entitled to power, and any threat to that entitlement must be destroyed. Wallace couldn’t care less about the will of voters being respected. She sits in her studio, living in her bubble, believing that she has the right to dictate the future of the country. That is what actual “audacity” looks like.
Later in the broadcast, Wallace did her best to reassure herself, suggesting that Vance was “mansplaining” and that women wouldn’t like that.
WALLACE: Like muting power, and I actually think that if you’re a woman, that might be the worst moment JD Vance had because he was going to mansplain right over that mute button. He was, and again, I don’t pretend to know how everyone will react to this. I think that a lot of women in positions of authority that should command respect just by virtue of that dynamic will see themselves and some do, the disrespect of them, and talked over. There was a moment with then-vice presidential, in the Harris-Pence debate.
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In the snarky political commentary business, we call that cope. The exchange Wallace is citing is linked above, and it’s worth a watch because it too is very educational. In it, one of the moderators tried to “fact-check” Vance before quickly moving on to the next topic. The Ohio senator rightly wanted to explain why that “fact-check” lacked crucial context. He did so with great skill, but toward the end of his answer, his microphone was cut.
Last time I checked, debates are for the candidates. They do not exist for moderators to exert their “authority” and shut down intellectual exchanges. It’s one thing if people are shouting over each other, but that wasn’t happening. Again, though, it’s instructive in that it shows how the left processes politics. They truly think they should have the right to stop debate and censor information for the “greater good.”
With all that said, I’ll end with this clip from Jen Psaki, which was just too good not to share.
PSAKI: But I, coming out of it, I hope that they free Tim Walz, and put him out there, and let him be rusty at times, and make mistakes, and hug football players, and cry, and be (stops herself from saying awkward) be funny sometimes. That’s the magic. That’s why he’s on the ticket.
Tim Walz is on the ticket because Josh Shapiro is Jewish and Democrats have an antisemitism problem. That’s it. It’s not because he’s endearing. It’s not because he has “big dad energy.” It’s because he was the least threatening option in the eyes of Kamala Harris, a calculation she royally screwed up. If they want to put Walz out on the campaign trail more to “cry,” go ahead. I’m just not sure that’s going to play very well with the demographic he’s currently unable to reach, which is men in general.
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MSNBC provides a window into the soul of the Democratic Party. It is the unfiltered raw emotion of who they truly are, and it’s not pretty. When MSNBC is upset, you know a Republican did something right.