Mike’s Blog Round-up

This article is part of The D. C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. A polished J. D. Vance plowed through his lone debate as the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee and skirted legitimate questions about the record of his running mate, Donald Trump.

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Vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and J. D. Vance faced off in their first and possibly only debate Tuesday night, just five weeks ahead of Election Day in a closely contested race. The debate, hosted by CBS News in New York, marked what is likely to be the final opportunity for voters to evaluate the campaigns before casting their ballots.

Over the weekend, Fox News host Mark Levin spent the first 20 minutes of his show screaming, shaking, and hyperventilating over every complaint, conspiracy, and MAGA lie about President Biden, Kamala Harris, and the entire Democratic Party. Levin is deconstructing and dissembling just as much as Demented Donald as the election grows near and the polls have shifted in favor of VP Harris.

JD Vance is a bigger danger to democracy than Donald Trump. Vance makes clear his dislike of cats, women and immigrants, but his terrible ideas on those topics are the tip of the iceberg. On September 30, Rachel Maddow put a spotlight JD Vance's anti-democratic views. The man who is the GOP candidate for vice president has some very disturbing and radical views on how to lead our country.

The 90 minute debate begins at 9 pm Eastern and will have two four-minute commercial breaks. Via CBS News: There will be no audience — a measure also implemented during the two previous presidential debates. There will be no opening statements. Unlike the presidential debates, a candidate's microphone will not be muted when their opponent is speaking, but CBS News reserves the right to turn off the microphones. Vance won a virtual coin toss on Thursday, opting to go second with his closing statement.