Juno News - J.D. Vance DOMINATES debate, Tim “Knucklehead” Walz flounders

00:00:00.000 Hughes Kamala Harris of inviting drug mules. I said that she enabled the Mexican drug cartels 1.00

00:00:05.280 to operate freely in this country. And we know that they use children as drug mules and it is

00:00:10.180 a disgrace and it has to stop. Vice presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walls squared off

00:00:16.480 in their debate last night in a performance that everyone, even the mainstream media,

00:00:21.320 is saying was a resounding victory for J.D. Vance. Walls appeared rattled and unprepared

00:00:28.520 throughout the night while the Republican VP pick was calm, cool, and collected. He delivered the

00:00:34.640 facts and a vision of an optimistic and hopeful future under Donald Trump. And he even tripped

00:00:40.540 up the moderators in their own lies. We'll dive into all that now on I'm Rachel Parker and you're

00:00:46.180 watching Rachel in the Republic. Hey everyone, welcome back to Rachel in the Republic. I'm your

00:00:58.460 host Rachel Parker. We are going to be covering the vice presidential debate on today's show. That

00:01:03.540 was last night. It was an excellent debate to watch. If you guys are interested in this stuff,

00:01:08.560 I would highly recommend you go back and take a look at it. When we're talking about the VP debates

00:01:13.940 with Tim Walls and J.D. Vance, it was really a lot of what we didn't see in the debate with Donald

00:01:20.420 Trump. We obviously have covered that debate so much on this show. And as I've said, you know,

00:01:24.880 it wasn't the performance that I think a lot of Republicans were hoping for. But in the end,

00:01:29.520 it ultimately appeared that Trump came out ahead with sort of that unexpected moment,

00:01:33.940 even when he was talking about they're eating the cats and eating the dogs. And that became the clip

00:01:37.980 that everyone remembers from that debate night. And even the polls, you know, Kamala Harris didn't do 0.98

00:01:44.340 enough to persuade those middle of American voters who aren't sure who they're going to vote for. So

00:01:49.320 it was still, you know, a victory for Donald Trump, though, not necessarily in the way that

00:01:54.240 people were looking for or that people, Republicans, particularly, particularly Republicans,

00:01:59.440 that they actually wanted. And I think when we look at the debate with Tim Walls and J.D. Vance,

00:02:03.960 it is exactly the performance that Republicans really wanted J.D. Vance. He has such a knowledge

00:02:09.760 of the facts and he just was really provided a masterclass on how to deliver the facts and how to

00:02:14.520 stay on message. And he appeared really cool, calm and collected throughout the entire evening.

00:02:18.720 And you can even see that in some of the imagery online. You know, when he's not talking, he sees

00:02:23.320 he's standing there. He's standing next to Tim Walls. He looks very relaxed. And that's obviously

00:02:27.480 very difficult to do on a national stage like J.D. Vance was last night where, you know, everyone's

00:02:33.300 watching, everyone's hoping you're going to trip up. Even the slightest look of your face where you

00:02:38.200 might look a little bit dejected for a moment, that's going to be clipped and captured and it's

00:02:42.300 going to live in internet history. And he really just held his ground throughout the entire evening

00:02:46.540 where Tim Walls looked very rattled. He looked quite panicked throughout the evening. You know,

00:02:51.140 there was that funny moment just now in the cold opening when J.D. Vance is talking about Kamala

00:02:55.620 Harris's record with the open border policies and Tim Walls actually appears to be nodding in

00:02:59.760 agreement. Those are just the types of things you really want to avoid in a debate performance

00:03:04.460 with such magnitude as last night was. But, you know, we're going to dive into this. I'm going to

00:03:09.680 play some clips for you guys so you can kind of get a sense of how the evening played out for

00:03:12.600 those of you who don't want to necessarily go and watch the whole thing, but just want to understand

00:03:16.420 what it meant in the context of the U.S. presidential election and, you know, how things

00:03:22.740 might move going forward. And I just want to say, you know, we've covered a lot on this show,

00:03:26.400 Trump's performance. And I think a lot of people are curious as to how this election coverage and

00:03:30.840 how the election is actually going to unfold. And since Trump's performance, and I think yesterday

00:03:35.480 with J.D. Vance really just solidified that, I feel like the momentum is really shifting.

00:03:39.820 I think for a lot, for a lot of this, you know, I do believe it's still going to be a very,

00:03:44.720 a very close election. But I think throughout a lot of the election cycle, your Republicans have

00:03:50.080 kind of been sitting on their hands nervously, not sure where things are going to go and not sure if

00:03:54.100 Trump would be able to pull the win. And I think given how his debate performance is being remembered

00:03:59.520 that we saw the polls didn't move in favor for Kamala after Trump's performance, and now with J.D.

00:04:04.760 Vance coming out with a very strong performance, I think we can kind of see the momentum

00:04:08.420 picking up for the Trump campaign. I think Republicans are breathing a little easier,

00:04:12.320 just seeing how Trump is being remembered and seeing that Kamala and Tim Walls have really

00:04:16.460 not done enough to assure Americans that things will be better under their governments. Not for

00:04:22.420 all Americans. I was just in the States for another Tucker Carlson event. And, you know,

00:04:26.580 you always meet some crazy people who have some crazy ideas. But by and large, I think we're not

00:04:31.920 seeing the polls move. And I think Republicans are breathing a little easier.

00:04:34.560 So right off the hop, J.D. Vance came out, and I think he provided a very optimistic

00:04:39.200 vision for what America would look like under Donald Trump's presidency. And I think when we

00:04:44.500 talk about Trump's debate performance, you know, he really struggled to stay on message. And there

00:04:49.620 were some things about that that was very Trump in nature. And as we've covered so extensively,

00:04:54.340 that debate performance, I think, was remembered in a positive way by a lot of people. But J.D. Vance

00:04:59.280 came out, and he was so strong, and he was so on message from the beginning. Take a little bit

00:05:04.220 look. This is his opening here. Take a look at this clip. And you can just see why he started off

00:05:08.600 so strong. And he kind of delivered the points that a lot of Americans, especially those people

00:05:12.920 at home who are really feeling the pinch of the economy, and they're not feeling safe in their

00:05:17.800 neighborhoods anymore. I think this directly spoke to those people. And I think it did a lot to

00:05:23.460 really reassure them and say, Donald Trump presidency can get America back to the America

00:05:29.340 where we once were, where we want to get back to again. Take a look at this first clip from J.D.

00:05:33.080 Vance here. I want to answer the question. First of all, thanks, Governor. Thanks to CBS for hosting

00:05:37.360 the debate. And thanks, most importantly, to the American people who are watching this evening

00:05:40.620 and caring enough about this country to pay attention to this vice presidential debate.

00:05:44.800 I want to answer the question, but I want to actually give an introduction to myself a little

00:05:47.820 bit because I recognize a lot of Americans don't know who either one of us are. I was raised in a

00:05:52.040 working class family. My mother required food assistance for periods of her life. My grandmother

00:05:56.340 required Social Security help to raise me. And she raised me in part because my own mother 0.62

00:06:01.040 struggled with addiction for a big chunk of my early life. I went to college on the GI Bill after I

00:06:06.520 enlisted in the Marine Corps and served in Iraq. And so I stand here asking to be your vice

00:06:10.960 president with extraordinary gratitude for this country, for the American dream that made it possible

00:06:15.340 for me to live my dreams. And most importantly, I know that a lot of you are worried about the chaos in

00:06:21.120 the world and the feeling that the American dream is unattainable. I want to try to convince you

00:06:25.780 tonight over the next 90 minutes that if we get better leadership in the White House, if we get

00:06:30.420 Donald Trump back in the White House, the American dream is going to be attainable once again.

00:06:34.420 So you see there how he immediately goes for that conversation of people are feeling like the

00:06:38.840 world isn't secure anymore. And that's something that I think is one of the biggest criticisms of the

00:06:43.800 Biden-Harris administration is that the world writ large was a much more peaceful place under Donald

00:06:49.340 Trump. And now here we are on what feels like the brink of World War Three with just the other night

00:06:53.840 Iran dropping bombs on Israel. And a lot of people standing there holding their breath, wondering what

00:06:58.120 is going to happen from here? And is the U.S. particularly going to be pulled into a war in the

00:07:03.500 Middle East? And so I think with that comment, he directly hits at the hearts of concerns with

00:07:09.460 Americans at home, wondering what's going to happen with their military and also what's going to happen

00:07:13.140 with their tax dollars. Of course, America is funding a lot of these wars. And if it is dragged

00:07:17.840 into World War Three, it'll cost the American people a lot of money at a time when they really don't have

00:07:22.500 that money to be giving. And especially when a lot of Americans are thinking and saying to themselves,

00:07:26.720 our government needs to be putting more focus and attention on Americans at home and not in conflicts

00:07:32.120 overseas. So we see him really hit the nail on the head there with that comment. And I think even in his

00:07:36.780 opening comments, when he talks about how his mother struggled with addiction, that brings a

00:07:40.460 really personal moment to his story as well. When he talks about being reliant on government

00:07:45.100 assistant programs growing up, I think that really sort of, you know, assages middle of the road

00:07:50.840 Americans because a lot of conservatives, a lot of Republicans, we don't like government policies.

00:07:55.480 We don't like social security. And here, instead of attacking social security, instead of attacking

00:08:00.840 government programs, J.D. Vance is actually saying, you know, I relied on those programs growing up and

00:08:06.100 that got me through a really difficult period in my life. And so I understand for those of you at home

00:08:10.680 who need these programs, I was in that place before too. And I want to make sure that those are available

00:08:16.100 for you and that your family can get the help that they need, but also so that America becomes a place

00:08:22.360 where maybe one day you won't have to be reliant on those types of programs to keep the lights on at

00:08:27.240 home and to put bread on the table anymore. And so I think that was really strong line from him.

00:08:32.060 And when we also characterize those comments and the way he positioned himself against what

00:08:37.920 we've been told about J.D. Vance for so long and the way that a lot of his comments have been taken

00:08:41.840 out of context. Remember, the number one criticism against J.D. Vance is that he's just someone who's

00:08:46.040 really weird. He doesn't really get it. And I think for anyone who even saw a couple of minutes

00:08:51.560 of his performance last night, you know, you're watching that and you're thinking, oh, wow,

00:08:55.040 like this guy, he does get it, actually. He totally gets it. He's one of us. He didn't have,

00:09:00.180 you know, he's not, he's not a silver spoon baby. He actually had a very difficult childhood

00:09:04.140 and he obviously worked very hard to, to get from a point where he was being raised by his

00:09:09.420 grandmother on government social assistance to a point where he's now been picked as Trump's

00:09:14.420 running mate. This is someone who's worked very hard to get where he is. And he understands what

00:09:18.380 it's like for those of us at home who, who don't really have enough right now, who are, who are

00:09:22.540 struggling. So I think his performance last night was, uh, you know, very strong in the sense that

00:09:27.620 he delivered that message for the American people of what a Trump presidency would look

00:09:31.720 like and that life under Trump would be hopeful and optimistic and safe once again, but also

00:09:36.500 in just counteracting the media narrative that, um, he's weird and that he's out of touch and

00:09:42.740 those type, that type of rhetoric that we've seen with JD Vance. And, you know, the media

00:09:47.480 has done such a successful job, uh, at really pinholing JD Vance into that narrative that we've

00:09:53.920 seen even a lot of polls come out and say that he probably wasn't the best running mate for Trump.

00:09:57.800 And I think he, he really undid a lot of that with his debate performance last night, obviously

00:10:02.560 what the polls say in the test of time, what the election says later on, that'll be the real test

00:10:06.380 to see how his debate performance is remembered and what the impact of it was. But I think it was

00:10:10.920 pretty clear from anyone watching that he didn't let that rhetoric and that narrative that has been

00:10:15.660 created about him. He didn't let that get into his head and he just simply delivered with the

00:10:19.800 information and with the person that he is. Now there, we covered a little bit of what JD Vance

00:10:24.020 looked like being calm, cool and collected, but he was also very strong in fact checking last night.

00:10:29.140 So we had a couple moments in the debate where the moderators, once again, they tried to step in

00:10:34.520 and they tried to fact check JD Vance and he was not having it. He was very easily able to correct

00:10:40.500 them. We're going to play a clip for this now. Take a look at how he handles the media,

00:10:44.460 trying to fact check Tim. Governor. And just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield,

00:10:48.920 Ohio does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status.

00:10:56.320 Well, Margaret, but thank you. Senator, we have so much to get to.

00:10:59.500 Margaret, I think it's important because the rules were that you guys were going to fact

00:11:05.000 check. And since you're fact checking me, I think it's important to say what's actually going on.

00:11:09.600 So there's an application called the CBP One app where you can go on as an illegal migrant,

00:11:14.560 apply for asylum or apply for parole and be granted legal status at the wave of a Kamala 0.73

00:11:22.140 Harris open border wand. That is not a person coming in, applying for a green card and waiting

00:11:27.120 for 10 years. That is the facilitation of a legal immigration, Margaret, by our own leadership.

00:11:31.760 Thank you, Senator, for describing the legal process.

00:11:33.960 So that clip actually went on for a little longer. And then the moderators were quick

00:11:42.540 to eventually cut his microphones. You know, they did not want him interjecting with with

00:11:47.580 that fact check, though he was able to deliver. And I think we see them there initially when he

00:11:50.960 starts talking and he's saying, well, hold on, you know, you should at least if you're going to

00:11:54.200 fact check me on this, you should at least let me explain what I'm saying. And they're kind of

00:11:59.040 arguing with him back and forth until he says now the rules were that you would not be

00:12:03.340 interrupting the candidates with these fact checks. And that's when you see the moderators

00:12:06.060 kind of take a step back and sort of be like, oh, well, we've been caught red handed, breaking

00:12:09.980 the own rules that we've laid out for the candidates. So I guess we'll let him continue.

00:12:13.780 And then they come in again with that very smug response. Thank you. Thank you, Senator,

00:12:18.240 for for explaining the legal process. You know, just the smugness of it all is really what irks

00:12:23.580 me there. If you've been following J.D. Vance for a while, what he was saying to the

00:12:28.340 moderators is something that he said. He said before, I'm sure he'll say it again. He'll say,

00:12:31.640 sure, you know, Kamala Harris waved her magic wand and she allowed all these Haitian 1.00

00:12:36.720 migrants to come in. And the government, the Biden-Harris administration is saying that it

00:12:41.020 was done under a legal process. But I do not believe that it was constitutional in the way

00:12:45.440 that they allowed all these migrants to come in, because that's not the process that we have for 1.00

00:12:49.480 allowing newcomers into America. And so if Trump was elected, we would simply say that process was

00:12:54.840 not constitutional and that these Haitian migrants are not legal. And he's explained that before. 0.99

00:12:59.340 And that's why he interjected there with that clarification to say that, sure, Kamala Harris

00:13:03.500 might've allowed these migrants to come in, but that's not the process that we have for allowing 0.92

00:13:07.240 newcomers to come in in America. And, you know, the moderators, they weren't a big fan of that.

00:13:12.220 However, if you watch, if you go and watch some of the mainstream media coverage of that,

00:13:15.980 you'll see that even a lot of mainstream media journalists will say, you know,

00:13:19.560 you know, you know, J.D. Vance was actually correct in making that clarification. And you'll see a lot of

00:13:24.560 praise for his performance, even across mainstream media sources. I don't want to spend a ton of time

00:13:29.460 on that today because, well, I think that it speaks to the fact that Tim Walls really did have

00:13:35.400 a very poor performance. If we even have legacy media press coming out and saying that J.D. Vance

00:13:40.900 was strong and won the debate, I think by and large, I just tend to not pay too much mind to them

00:13:45.740 anymore because you never know which way the wind's going to blow with them. And they tend to be typically

00:13:50.700 so biased. So I don't need to spend a ton of time covering what they thought of the debate. They

00:13:54.540 said J.D. Vance won. And I think that's just evidence as to exactly how poor Walls' performance

00:13:58.620 was. But, you know, let's just not give them a lot of credence. I don't know that their opinion

00:14:02.640 matters too much in these things anymore. So we've spent some time talking about how Tim Walls

00:14:07.140 appeared rattled. Let's take a quick look at now how Walls' performance contrasted to J.D. Vance.

00:14:13.260 So first, I want to give you a little bit of an example of an exchange between the two of them.

00:14:18.360 Um, here, um, J.D. Vance is saying that Kamala Harris and Tim Walls are actually going to continue

00:14:24.380 censoring, uh, the American people. And, you know, in this instance, we see J.D. Vance doing what

00:14:30.540 Trump, I think, and, and J.D. Vance need to be very successful at doing in order to see a victory

00:14:35.620 in November, which is painting, which is painting the Democrats as, as radicals. That's why Trump even

00:14:41.300 has that nickname for Kamala Harris, uh, comrade Kamala, because he wants the American people to

00:14:46.520 recognize that she is extremely radicals with her policies and that it will take the American

00:14:51.340 people, you know, into communism essentially is what he's hit is what he's hinting at there with

00:14:55.420 that nickname. And we see J.D. Vance pinhole to most very successfully in that when he talks about

00:15:00.160 censorship, take a look at this next clip. You guys attack us for not believing in democracy.

00:15:05.260 The most sacred right under the United States democracy is the first amendment. You yourself

00:15:10.740 have said there's no first amendment right to misinformation. Kamala Harris wants to use the 1.00

00:15:15.460 power of government and big tech to silence people from speaking their minds. That is a threat to

00:15:20.980 democracy that will long outlive this present political moment. I would like Democrats and

00:15:25.100 Republicans to both reject censorship. Let's persuade one another. Let's argue about ideas and then

00:15:31.260 let's come together afterwards. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater. That's, that's the test.

00:15:36.000 That's the Supreme Court test. Tim, fire in a crowded theater. You guys wanted to kick people

00:15:40.180 off of Facebook for saying that toddlers shouldn't wear a mask. Senator, the governor does have the

00:15:44.200 floor. Fire in a crowded theater. That is criticizing the policies of the government, which is the right

00:15:50.440 of every American. J.D. Vance is essentially, he's portraying a very typically a traditional liberal view

00:15:55.340 of freedom of speech, which is that we should debate each other's ideas and we should seek to win over

00:16:00.120 hearts and minds, not allow people not to speak because we disagree with their ideas. And, and,

00:16:05.840 and Tim Waltz is, you know, his response, I think is very weak. You can't, you can't yell fire. You

00:16:10.040 can't yell fire in a crowded room, but he doesn't really, he's not really dissecting the information

00:16:14.700 that J.D. Vance has given there. He's just sort of giving a bit of a plot of, well, you know,

00:16:17.800 you can't do this. And I think it came off as not a very good moment for, for Tim Waltz.

00:16:23.720 Frustrating in that moment when J.D. Vance wants to get into the specifics and he's saying,

00:16:27.580 well, no, this isn't about yelling fire in a crowded room. You're actually saying that people,

00:16:32.160 you're asking Facebook to censor people who are saying that babies shouldn't wear masks and very

00:16:36.840 frustrating in that moment. You hear the moderators interrupt and they're, they're talking over again.

00:16:40.720 I think there is obviously some criticism to be had for the, once again, the debate format,

00:16:45.440 I find it so frustrating when the moderators are interrupting and to the point where you can't

00:16:49.760 actually hear what the candidates on the stage are saying. But I think that's a bit of a broader

00:16:53.580 discussion about what debate formats used to look like and how they look now and how now it's so much

00:16:57.980 of the moderator where traditionally it was really just two candidates on the, on the stage. And I

00:17:02.320 think, um, when I covered the, the Trump and Harris debate, some of you guys, even in my comments said,

00:17:06.860 you know, we just need to get back to having two candidates on the stage, dialoguing with each

00:17:10.680 other, maybe not even having the moderators there at all, maybe only having a moderator sitting there

00:17:14.800 in case things get out of hand. And I agree that would be a better format. Although I don't know

00:17:18.800 if a candidate like Kamala Harris would really ever agree to a format like that. I don't know if she 0.98

00:17:23.120 would even be capable of debating in such a format. That being said, frustrating moment.

00:17:27.200 I think that JD Vance was really delivering on his points there and saying now censorship is to a

00:17:32.160 point where people can't even discuss COVID policies, which is of course, I think lives in

00:17:36.140 recent memories of one of the worst cases of censorship that any of us have ever seen where

00:17:40.220 I was, and I'm sure you all experienced too. Even now, if I cover anything related to COVID and I post

00:17:46.620 it on Facebook, a lot of times it'll give a warning or on YouTube, it'll give a little note

00:17:50.120 about COVID-19 and where you can go find information and yada yada. It's all, it's all very silly, 0.86

00:17:54.420 but essentially that is the level of censorship that we've seen and is acceptable in most people's

00:17:59.840 minds now that we would be seeing such censorship. And Tim Walz is not really able to explain why that

00:18:05.640 is. He just simply says, well, you know, you can't take things too far, but he's not really

00:18:10.220 willing to say what he believes too far is because we all know it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be very far

00:18:16.180 at all. It'd be simply something like disagreeing with the so-called experts nowadays is considered

00:18:21.440 too far by the radical left. And that's the difference between what, when we talk about

00:18:26.000 traditional liberalism versus wokeism, traditional liberals, that's why we've seen so many of them

00:18:30.740 move like RFK Jr. You know, endorsing Trump is because what liberalism once was is now, you know,

00:18:38.740 they, people who are traditional liberals actually have more in common with conservatives

00:18:42.000 while everyone else seems to be following the leader off of a cliff.

00:18:46.020 All right. And I saved the best debate clip of the night for you all. This is sort of an epic debate

00:18:51.060 meltdown from Tim Walz. This is a bit of a longer clip than I would normally play, but I thought that

00:18:55.900 you would all would, would absolutely enjoy this epic debate meltdown. When Tim Walz is asked about

00:19:02.500 another instance where he was caught in a lie, we know that he seems to have a bit of a lying problem.

00:19:06.740 He lied about his military history and now he lied about being at the TNMM square when they were

00:19:13.100 protesting communism. And he was asked about why he said he was there, even when it seems like he

00:19:17.520 wasn't there. Um, I think this ends with him calling himself a knucklehead. Take a look at this. 0.68

00:19:22.260 Walls. You said you were in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen square protests in the spring of 1989,

00:19:29.260 but Minnesota public radio and other media outlets are reporting that you actually didn't travel to

00:19:34.920 Asia until August of that year. Can you explain that discrepancy?

00:19:40.300 Yeah. Well, and to the folks out there who didn't get at the top of this look, I, uh, I grew up in

00:19:44.820 small rural Nebraska, a town of 400 town that you rode your bike with your buddies till the street

00:19:50.620 lights come on. And I'm proud of that service. I joined the national guard at 17, worked on family

00:19:55.540 farms. And then I use the GI bill to become a teacher passionate about it, a young teacher. Uh, my first

00:20:02.200 year out, I got the opportunity in the summer of 89, uh, to travel to China 35 years ago, be able to do

00:20:07.940 that. I came back home and then started a program to take young people there. We would take basketball

00:20:14.060 teams. We would take baseball teams. We would take dancers and we would go back and forth to China.

00:20:19.040 The issue for that was, was to try and learn. Now, look, my community knows who I am. They saw where I

00:20:24.660 was at. They look, I will be the first to tell you, I have poured my heart into my community. I've tried

00:20:30.680 to do the best I can, but I've not been perfect. And I'm a knucklehead at times, but it's always been

00:20:35.500 about that. Those same people elected me to Congress for 12 years. And in Congress, I was

00:20:41.760 one of the most bipartisan people working on things like farm bills that we got done, working

00:20:45.980 on veterans benefits. And then the people of Minnesota were able to elect me to governor

00:20:50.460 twice. So look, my commitment has been from the beginning to make sure that I'm there for

00:20:55.480 the people to make sure that I get this right. I will say more than anything. Many times I, I will

00:21:01.440 talk a lot. I will get caught up in the rhetoric. But being there, the impact it made, the difference

00:21:07.760 it made in my life, I learned a lot about China. I hear the critiques of this. I would make the case

00:21:12.220 that Donald Trump should have come on one of those trips with us. I guarantee you he wouldn't be

00:21:16.640 praising Xi Jinping about COVID. And I guarantee you he wouldn't start a trade war that he ends up

00:21:22.600 losing. So this is about trying to understand the world. It's about trying to do the best you can for

00:21:28.560 your community. And then it's putting yourself out there and letting your folks understand what it

00:21:32.420 is. My commitment, whether it be through teaching, which I was good at, or whether it was being a good

00:21:37.180 soldier or was being a good member of Congress, those are the things that I think are the values

00:21:41.080 that people care about. Governor, just to follow up on that, the question was, can you explain the

00:21:47.860 discrepancy? All I said on this was, is I got there that summer and misspoke on this. So I will just,

00:21:53.560 that's what I've said. So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests went in. And

00:22:02.840 from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance. So he essentially spoke for two

00:22:09.560 minutes there without answering the question. I know what it's like to be asked a question

00:22:13.660 that you absolutely have no idea the answer to. And you're like, I really should know the answer to this.

00:22:19.000 That being said, in this case, the question that he didn't know the answer to was something that he

00:22:24.200 had already been caught. There was already media outlets reporting that he had said that he was at

00:22:27.600 Tiananmen Square during the protest and that he wasn't there. So he obviously should have been

00:22:32.160 prepared to have been asked this question. And he seems he's caught totally flat-footed here. He has

00:22:37.280 absolutely no idea what to say. He goes on this two-minute ramble about his whole experience in

00:22:43.200 life growing up, what he's done to get to the point where he's now, yeah, we know about that all.

00:22:47.020 You've already said that, that that's not, this isn't the time for that. This is the time to,

00:22:50.680 you know, be able to sort of explain for this, this essentially this lie that you've said and

00:22:55.220 to be able to flip it in a positive way. But instead, because he, he's asked to be asked about

00:22:59.680 the lie twice. He's, you know, the moderators, they come back with false social story. What's the

00:23:03.020 answer there? He sort of is left with this really awkward moment where he's sort of stumbling over his

00:23:08.700 words. There's long pauses. He's trying to bring a connection there. Maybe if he started off and said,

00:23:12.780 you know, I misspoke and ended and ended his answer with that bit about, well, Trump would

00:23:17.600 have really benefited from these experiences. Then, then his answer could have been remembered

00:23:21.400 in a more positive way, but because he doesn't even address the question from the beginning and

00:23:25.820 the moderators have to come back, that's sort of the lingering impact that you have. And then of

00:23:30.000 course, I think the fact that he calls himself a knucklehead was just pretty brutal. Like it's fun

00:23:35.320 to be a little bit self-deprecating at times. I think it can come across as, as personal. I tend to be

00:23:39.780 quite, uh, quite self-deprecating among my friends and, and, you know, that can be, that can be all

00:23:44.600 in good fun. And I think it can kind of make people feel more relaxed around you. However, I don't know

00:23:49.920 if on this national stage while you're debating was really the appropriate moment for it. Um, you're

00:23:55.220 sort of trying to present yourself to the public as a person who is going to be the best possible pick

00:24:01.180 for the vice president of the most powerful country of the world. And here you are now being asked about

00:24:06.460 a lie where, and you're, you know, being asked to account for a lie that you've said, and you don't

00:24:11.120 answer to it. And instead you tell people how much of a knucklehead you are. So it's, it's really quite 0.99

00:24:15.440 confusing. And Tim Walls, he really tries to lean into his small town folksy roots. And I think he does

00:24:22.700 it successfully at times. I've seen a lot of people commenting on the line and they say, Oh, you know,

00:24:27.060 this, this just seems, he seems like a fun guy. You know, he seems like the type of person that you'd

00:24:31.100 want to go for a beer. So he really does try to lean into these folksy small town roots. And you even see that

00:24:35.880 in the language that he uses. And I think in this instant, it was sort of an example where we all

00:24:40.900 kind of saw through the facade and, you know, he's on stage, he's, he's, he's kind of embarrassing

00:24:45.400 himself. He doesn't know what his answer is. He's just talking and talking and talking and talking

00:24:49.220 and, and with calling himself a knucklehead. So I think it was just a really ineffective.

00:24:53.960 And I think the question we all have to ask ourselves is why wasn't he prepared for this

00:24:57.820 question? It seems like such an obvious question that you were going to be asked. Like you also should

00:25:02.040 have been maybe more, more, even more importantly, he should have been asked why he was lying about

00:25:06.580 his, his military experience. Um, because that's something I think that's even a more important

00:25:10.760 question than, than this instance here. That being said, you know, you know, he did manage to embarrass

00:25:15.780 himself quite significantly in that moment. So certainly hilarious debate moment from him.

00:25:21.400 Uh, I hope to see, you know, more from Tim Walls, more of these hilarious moments. I think,

00:25:25.860 you know, CNN's Jake Tapper, he said later on, well, you know, obviously JD Vance is a little bit more

00:25:30.960 experienced with, with this all, which is interesting when you think about how long

00:25:34.600 Walls is history and politics has been. And the fact that he's quite a bit older than JD Vance,

00:25:39.760 JD Vance is actually by all accounts, less experienced than Tim Walls, but I don't think

00:25:44.220 that Democrats like Kamala Harris and JD Vance, Joe Biden, you know, they're not experienced,

00:25:49.900 um, with dealing with these, you know, and this wasn't even that tough of a question,

00:25:54.240 but they're not experienced dealing with, with any sort of tough questions that challenges them

00:25:58.620 because the media is so easy on them and compared to their Republican counterparts.

00:26:03.100 And obviously during the last debate, we saw the media actually sort of running cover for Kamala.

00:26:07.500 So I think that's why we see him caught off guard there is because even though he has been in

00:26:10.620 politics for so long and by all measures should be very experienced, he doesn't do a lot of media

00:26:15.960 and he certainly isn't challenged by the media that he does agree to interviews with. And ultimately

00:26:21.000 he comes across as, as very unprepared. I think it would have been better if he'd even

00:26:24.520 at points in his career, been willing to do interviews with media that doesn't favor him,

00:26:29.160 that doesn't like him and that he had been challenged to really prepare himself for this

00:26:32.720 moment. But instead he shied away from the tough camera at every opportunity. And during one of the

00:26:37.820 most important nights of his life, he really fumbled that very hard. All right, everyone,

00:26:41.320 that's all we have time for today on Rachel and the Republic. We will be back next week with more

00:26:46.020 election coverage for you guys. I hope that you have a great week. I'll see you soon and God bless.

00:26:54.520 Bye bye.

Juno News - October 02, 2024

J.D. Vance DOMINATES debate, Tim “Knucklehead” Walz flounders

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