Comment on Tim Walz Just Reminded Us What Happened to Trump’s Last Running Mate

Molly Ball: “Without Donald Trump there as an easy target, Democrats’ argument is much harder to make.” “That was the most obvious conclusion from Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate between Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz. With deftness, discipline and finesse, Vance, the Ohio senator, prosecuted the case against the current administration while calling back to a not-always-recognizable vision of Trump’s term in office—and his exit from it—as a time of comparative peace and prosperity.

“Donald Trump Jr. lashed out at anyone who would compare his father to Adolf Hitler as he appeared on a CNN special after Tuesday’s vice presidential debate,” the Daily Beast reports. “He forgot one thing: that the man he was supposed to be stumping for, Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance, did exactly that himself.”

Aaron Blake: “Running mates are often tasked with being attack-dogs for their tickets. And both Vance and Walz got their licks in as the debate wore on — including a testy exchange on democracy and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the end.” “But it was also a remarkably substance-focused and largely civil debate.” “One of Walz’s most interesting strategies was in not so much attacking Vance, but in casting him as someone who might actually be reasonable — in contrast to Trump.” Axios notes the debate “offered a rare lesson in civility — a reminder of what politics used to be, and what it hopefully still can be.” CNN: “The unusually normal debate ended with another refreshingly normal moment – the kind that hasn’t been seen over the past decade of presidential debates.

“Let’s start by saying that vice presidential debates generally don’t swing elections. But the 90-minute tilt between Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was a throwback to debates of yesteryear, where two pols with Capitol Hill experience gently traded statistic-laced barbs,” Punchbowl News reports. “Vance and Walz didn’t talk over each other — for the most part.

“Tim Walz and JD Vance spent much of Tuesday night defending their running mates’ records. They were less successful promoting their bosses’ plans for the future,” Politico reports. “The two vice presidential candidates spent the 90-minute debate relitigating the last eight years just as much as they focused on their visions for the next four, sparring over the intricacies of Donald Trump’s first term, President Joe Biden’s policies — and their own political baggage, including Walz’ false claim he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests and Vance’s past harsh criticisms of Trump.” “The result was a wide-ranging, policy-heavy back and forth that often pushed Walz and Vance to play defense for the presidential nominees, affording them little opportunity to make a fresh and forceful case to undecided voters just weeks before they head to the polls.”

George Condon: “The American people got a throwback debate Tuesday night from two vice presidential candidates who reached back a few decades for a civil and generally cordial airing of differences.” “Most notable about the exchange was the emergence of a Republican nominee who for most of the night bore little resemblance to the Sen.