As we reported last night, J.D. Vance just massacred Sen. Tim Ryan (R-OH) in the Ohio Senatorial debate. He gave great, intelligent answers and shot down Ryan at every turn. Ryan has been trying to smear Vance on abortion, for example. That of course isn’t the top issue on people’s minds, no matter how much Democrats want to make it so, but Vance showed he was more than ready for Ryan’s attack and turned it around on him when Ryan brought up the rape of a ten-year-old girl. Vance said it was by an illegal alien who was in the country because of policies that Ryan and the Democrats support. He also skewered Ryan for voting for legislation that would have allowed abortion up until the moment of birth.
But there were a couple of more moments that I wanted to highlight including one incredible self-own by Tim Ryan.
Ryan tried to attack Vance claiming he’d invested in a company that shipped jobs off to China. Vance blew up that attack, asking Ryan to name what the company was but Ryan was unable to, making him look ridiculous.
He pointed out how he knew how to create jobs and Ryan didn’t.
Vance spoke about his service as a Marine and pointed out how he entered the Marines at the same time that Ryan entered Congress. While he was serving in the Marines, Ryan was failing to deliver for the people of Ohio, Vance said.
Then, Ryan stepped in it big time as he tried to struggle back against Vance, with a self-own that just made him look silly. You can say all kinds of things in a debate. But when you say things like this, people are just going to laugh at you, and rightly so.
“I’m not gonna sit here and let you demean my service,” Ryan whined. “I had to put on my football jersey and go serve in the community.”
Wait, was he just comparing whatever he did in high school and putting on a football jersey to being a Marine? And that’s the service he’s falling back on — what he did in high school — to suggest that people should vote for him? Does he have to look that far back for “service”? Yikes.
Not to mention that he talks about having “had to” when the whole point of service is that you choose to do it. But he forgot what that Catholic school likely taught him about abortion.
Talk about imploding. Then Vance just finished him off with one of the best lines of the night. “I admire the spirit of service,” he said. “What I don’t admire is the failure of accomplishment.”
Game, set, and match. There’s your new senator from Ohio.