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A man in
a hat
and coat
holds a
phone
watching
the
vice-presidential
debate
while on
a street
in
Manhattan
at
night.
The
vice-presidential
debate
on
Tuesday
night is
so far
set to
be the
final
debate
of the
2024
presidential
election.Credit...Eric
Lee/The
New York
Times |
| |
Vance-Walz
VP
Debate
Clash
Over
Jan. 6:
Seven
Takeaways
By Shane
Goldmacher,
and Reid
J.
Epstein
3–4
minutes
Senator
JD Vance
of Ohio
and Gov.
Tim Walz
of
Minnesota
spent
most of
their
only
debate
aiming
not at
each
other
but at
their
running
mates,
relitigating
the last
two
administrations
and
eight
years as
each
promised
his
ticket
would
deliver
a new
direction
for the
nation.
It was a
substantive
and
mostly
civil
debate
between
two
Midwestern
men that
laid
bare the
policy
chasm
between
the two
parties
on
immigration,
abortion
and
foreign
policy.
But no
issue
made
clearer
the size
and
stakes
of the
country’s
current
political
divide
than the
final
topic of
the
night,
when Mr.
Vance
refused
to
concede
that
former
President
Donald
J. Trump
had lost
the 2020
election.
“Tim,
I’m
focused
on the
future,”
Mr.
Vance
said,
trying
to move
on.
“That is
a
damning
nonanswer,”
Mr. Walz
replied.
Mr.
Vance
looked
polished
throughout.
Mr. Walz
spoke
haltingly,
especially
at the
start,
taking a
series
of
verbal
stutter-steps
before
getting
to his
point.
Vice-presidential
debates
rarely
reshape
presidential
elections,
and
neither
man
appeared
to
suffer a
race-defining
stumble.
But this
one,
uniquely,
is
scheduled
— for
now — to
be the
final
debate
of 2024.
Here are
seven
takeaways
from the
debate:
Vance
had no
answer
for a
basic
question:
Did
Trump
lose the
2020
election?
Mr.
Vance
spent
much of
the
night
offering
explanations
for Mr.
Trump’s
policies
that
sounded
accessible.
But in
one of
the
debate’s
final
exchanges,
Mr.
Vance
found
himself
without
an
explanation
for Mr.
Trump’s
behavior
after
the 2020
election.
Mr.
Vance
tried,
making
the
eyebrow-raising
argument
that Mr.
Trump
“peacefully
gave
over
power on
January
the
20th.”
“Did he
lose the
2020
election?”
Mr. Walz
questioned
Mr.
Vance.
Mr.
Vance
dodged
and
pivoted.
He
argued
that the
Democrats
were the
real
threat
to
democracy
and
claimed
that Ms.
Harris
censored
Americans,
citing
old
Facebook
policies.
He had
no
answer
to the
question
itself.
The
exchange
showed
both the
limits
and
requirements
of
serving
as Mr.
Trump’s
running
mate.
“That’s
why Mike
Pence
isn’t on
this
stage,”
Mr. Walz
said.
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