America's Talking - Vance, Walz Debate Economy, Immigration, Abortion in Tight Presidential Race

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz exchanged barbs on the debate stage Tuesday night in what may be the final debate before Election Day just five weeks away. CBS News anchors Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan hosted the 100+ minute debate of the vice presidential nominees, where the candidates grappled over the economy, immigration, abortion and the records of their respective running mates. Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris remain in a tight race according to polling nationally and in the swing states. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAelib, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. We are recording this on Friday, October 4th. Saturday marks exactly one month before the November 5th election, when voters would decide whether former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris succeeds Joe Biden as president. The race remains tight, both nationally and in key swing states ahead of the election. This week marked the first and only debate between the vice presidential candidates, Ohio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, running with Trump,

and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz running with Harris. Joining me to discuss this is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. Casey, you covered the debate for the Center Square. What are your top takeaways? Yeah, I mean, it was a big win for, for Senator J.D. Vance, Trump's running mate, right up until the last moment when he sort of was doing his home run lap and he tripped a little bit before touching home play. I mean, it's, you know, the first question is, you know, do vice presidential debates matter? Are there some undecided swing voter, you know, a couple in Pennsylvania watching the TV this week, really being influenced by this?

debate. And, you know, I've seen a lot of analysis, a lot of writing that's skeptical of that, but I actually think it does make a difference because, you know, for instance, Harris and Walls have made their whole campaign about the vibes, the joy campaign, low on details, high on joy and good vibes. And the VP debate definitely changed the vibes of the race. I mean, Vance, who is previously being constantly critiqued is weird and super extreme. this is weird extreme right winger. He seemed like a very normal, well-spoken, eloquent guy. I mean, he may have come off as almost like too eloquent to some people,

but he didn't come off as that weird or guy in your basement or guy you don't want to talk to at the grocery store. So I think he did a lot. And the favorability ratings after the race showed that he did a lot for his own personal brand that repaired it. Except for that, you know, question at the end about January 6th, he pretty much dominated. walls and everyone, and all of Democrats admitted that. Now, will it significantly move the needle? No, but the thing is, Dan, as you alluded to, these races are raised, have a razor thin margins right now. I mean, we're talking, the key swing states are within the margin of errors, you know, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan. These states are Arizona within the margin of error polling. And so they're legitimately toss-ups.

If we had the election today, we did not know who would win. And so, you know, swinging a few thousand or a few, you know, tens of thousands of voters with a good debate performance could make the difference. Yeah, when it comes to vice presidential debates and whether they actually make a difference. The honest answer is I don't know. Who knows? You know, there's a lot of speculation about it, but there is no doubt that J.D. Vance dominated most of this debate, as you said, until the very, And one of the interesting things, one of you, that Tim Walls was asked about his claims that he was, you know, in China during the NMAs Square, a massacre, he was asked about that. He called himself, what did he call himself?

A knucklehead. A knucklehead. And then conceded that he misspoke, which he's done a lot during this campaign season. He misspoke about his military record, et cetera. etc, etc. That was not a good moment for the Minnesota governor. No, I mean, he's on the, you know, how many times can you misspeak on important issues before you're considered just a liar? I don't know. I mean, I think a lot of Republicans do consider a liar. A lot of, you know, high-ranking military retired officers have come out

and been highly critical of walls for embellishing his rank. in the military, which is kind of a funny thing to embellish because it's so easily disproven that he's embellished his rank. And then he basically said that he carried weapons of war into combat. He intimated that. And that wasn't true. He never, you know, he left his place in the military just before his unit was deployed to Afghanistan, actually.

So, I mean, that's, you know, that didn't get brought up. And it's probably for, to his benefit, because I was on a press, a press, press call this week before the debate with the Trump campaign and, you know, other national reporters. And they dedicated a lot of time on that call to attacking Walls for his, you know, for his military deception, his military record deception. In fact, the, the password to get on the call was stolen valor. So they were really making that point. So the fact that Walls alluded that criticism was really was good for him. You know, I think that. You know, I think that Walls looked really bad on immigration in particular in the economy.

I mean, Vance was very prepared. My sense was, Dan, was that Wals was very prepared to attack Trump. And he had his lines down and he was clipping through those lines and making his one-liners. But he was not prepared at all to defend Harris. So he got his lines in against Trump. And then Vance, Vance had prepared defenses for Trump. and then Vance would turn and attack Comala Harris' record. Walls just had no answer for it.

And so I think that maybe was the missed opportunity in their preparation is Wals was not able to play defense for Harris. I mean, the attacks on Trump, there's plenty to be found, and they've been repeated in the media and by Democrats for a long time. There's no shortage of attacks on Trump. But defenses of Harris's record seemed more rare at that debate. So let's push it forward, Casey, in the short time we have, left tomorrow, Saturday, October 5th is the one-month mark until the election. It's October. In past election cycles, you've heard of these October surprises, the potential for October surprises that could swing a tight race such as this, and this is a very tight race, according to

most polls, including the real clear polling average of all polls, all polls, what potentially could swing this race one way or the other? Yeah, I mean, it's so interesting. As I said, is razor thin margins. Something will swing it. I mean, we have a couple of things happening right now. The dock workers, you know, strike that closed down the ports on the east and the Gulf Coast, has been tentatively reached an agreement.

So, I mean, that is a huge liability removed for Harris. And that was going to be potentially campaign ending for her as prices continue to rise. And she continued to take fire on it being unable to reach a deal. But so far, you know, she, they were able to get it by and whoever got him to the table. Now, if that deal falls through, it could be catastrophic for Harris. It would need to fall through pretty quickly so that the prices would have time to arise. Another one, Dan, is if if there's some kind of major escalation in the Middle East, I think it has a real chance to be an October surprise for Harris. as well, of course, that's escalating. If there's something nuclear that happens in October,

if there is something that entangles the United States in another foreign Middle East war, where people are talking about putting troops on the ground, it changes the calculus, because voters are now asking a new question. They're not asking, what do I think about abortion rights, or what do I think about democracy or the economy or immigration? They're asking, who do I trust to handle this war in the Middle East? And I'm not sure we really don't know who fares better on that question, Trump or Harris. Thank you for joining us today, Casey. Listeners over the next month plus can keep all up with all election-related news at

the center square.com.