Andy Bloom: Vance shows Trump how it’s done

The vice-presidential debate defied expectations. The fire-breathing, sarcastic, horned, and unpopular Republican nominee, JD Vance, turned out to be articulate, polite, thoughtful, and often agreeable. The plain-spoken, folksy, typical midwestern dad appeared nervous, sometimes befuddled, and — like Harris during her debate — spent considerable time repeating the same attacks on Trump rather than explaining her policies.

It was a substantive, mostly cordial debate that avoided personal attacks. Vance and Walz agreed with one another on several occasions. At the end they shook hands and introduced their wives to one another.

I graded Vance a solid B, not giving him an A because he left several opportunities on the table, and Walz a C. I was going to give Walz a D, but he regained his composure in the second hour of the debate, and the moderator’s geared topic selection toward Democratic strengths – more on 2020 and a lot of time devoted to abortion, again.

The CBS moderators, Norah O’Donnell, and Margaret Brennen, get a D. They weren’t as bad as ABC’s Muir and Davis, but once again, the moderators broke the rules for only one side.

Brennen attempted to fact-check Vance, but he was prepared and calmly responded, “Margaret, the rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check, and since you’re fact-checking me…” Vance tried to explain the administration’s CBP App, at which point Vance’s microphone was cut, and Brennan somewhat snarkily advised both men they couldn’t be heard because their mics had been cut off. Vance was fact-checked a total of three times, while Walz was not fact-checked at all.

The first question set the pattern for the night. It followed up on Iran’s rocket attack on Israel the night before. Brennan asked both men if they would support or oppose a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran.

Walz answered first, much like Harris responded to her first question during ABC’s presidential debate. He nervously began with biographical information before repeating attack lines about Trump, but he never answered the question.

Vance also began with a biographical introduction before reminding viewers that it was this administration that allowed Iran to sell oil on the market and freed up the money the mullahs used to arm their proxies. He ended by saying, “It is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe. And we should support our allies wherever they are when they’re fighting the bad guys. I think that’s the right approach to take with the Israel question.”

I suspect the Ayatollah and mullahs in Iran are rooting for Harris-Walz after hearing both answers. 

One of Walz’s low points was when he was asked about his claim that he was in China when the Tiananmen Square incident happened. A newspaper from 1989 shows that Walz was in Nebraska at the time. David Axelrod on CNN said it might have been better if he answered the question in Chinese.

Walz tried to explain this bald-faced lie by saying his community knows who he is and with this statement: “I’m a knucklehead at times.” And, “I will say more than anything, many times, I will talk a lot. I will get caught up in the rhetoric. But being there, the impact it made, the difference it made in my life. I learned a lot about China.” Really? Vice President Knucklehead? As if one of the Three Stooges could become vice president.

On follow-up Walz explained: “I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just, that’s what I’ve said. So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protest, went in, and from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance.”

That’s another lie. Walz was not in Asia during the democracy protest, which ended in Tiananmen Square. A Nebraska newspaper from the time shows that Walz was actually there and not in Asia at the time.

During the debate, Vance did not attack Walz, instead going after Harris and the current administration. This might have been the one time that Vance should have responded directly to Walz. He has misspoken about his rank, about carrying weapons of war when he never was in an active combat zone, about IVF, about his DUI, and more. During the sit-down interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Walz blamed his misspeaking on “bad grammar.” 

Vance might have used that opportunity to remind viewers that Walz seems to misspeak an awful lot. The entire Harris-Walz campaign is about how terrible Trump’s character is, yet Walz has a problem speaking truthfully.

Vance did a masterful job of prosecuting Harris’s record over the past (nearly) four years. He did a much better job explaining Trump’s agenda than the former president did during his debate with Harris.

Democrats are giddy that Vance didn’t acknowledge that Trump lost the 2020 election. Instead, Vance talked about looking forward (isn’t that what Kamala says we’re supposed to do?) and chastised the current administration for censorship. Interfering with the First Amendment is a major threat. Harris and Biden threaten our entire form of checks and balances with their current proposals to undermine the Supreme Court – another point I wish Vance would have brought up.

During the discussion about abortion, Vance correctly identified a law Walz signed that allows for abortion during the entire nine months. Walz denied this, which is either a lie or he doesn’t know what he signed into law. I have yet to see a fact-checker point out Vance was right and Walz was wrong.

Walz signed the “Protect Reproductive Options Act” (PRO) into Minnesota state law on January 31, 2023. The PRO Act codifies the right to abortion and other reproductive rights (that are pretty horrific). It guarantees that a pregnant “individual” has the right to decide whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy at any state without gestational limits.

The act states that everyone has a “fundamental right” to make decisions regarding their reproductive health, which includes abortion. It doesn’t specify restrictions on the stage of pregnancy, which effectively allows access to abortion throughout all nine months.

The PRO Act eliminates a law signed by a previous Democratic governor (“Born Alive Infants Protection Act”)  that obligates doctors to take measures to save a fetus in the case of a botched abortion. Walz also eliminated reporting requirements, so nobody will know how often this will happen in the future.

O’Donnell asked Walz about why he previously opposed an assault weapons ban. The truthful answer would have been because he was in Congress representing a district where he would have lost if he said his actual opinion. When he ran for governor, and the liberal cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul could provide enough votes to win, he stated his actual leftist position. Instead of answering, he provided one of the biggest faux pas of the night, which the mainstream media won’t repeat: “I’ve become friends with school shooters.”

Finally, they got to a question about inflation, which turned to housing. Here’s another area where Vance could have hit back harder. Harris continues to claim she will build three million new homes. Vance should have pointed out that in 2021, at the urging of Biden and Harris, Congress provided $7.5 billion to build charging stations for EVs.

As of the end of 2023, not a single charging station had been built.

If Harris can’t build a single charging station with $7.5 billion in two years, how will she get three million homes built? If the experts Walz referred to earlier in the debate don’t think giving $25,000 to some home buyers will result in higher home prices, more inflation, and another 2008-style housing bubble, it’s another reason not to trust the so-called experts.

Vance’s closing statement was an excellent summary of how it has become more expensive to afford to heat your home and put food on the table because of Kamala’s policies over the past nearly four years. Most voters know they are less safe in their communities, and Vance reminded them that Harris has been in office for 1400 days and had her chance to fix problems, but everything has gotten worse. He made a compelling argument not to give another four years of the same policies.

Vance’s performance should blunt some of the media narrative about him. It’s too bad Trump didn’t have a debate performance as good as Vance’s.

Andy Bloom is President of Andy Bloom Communications. He specializes in media training and political communications. He has programmed legendary stations including WIP, WPHT, WYSP/Philadelphia, KLSX, Los Angeles, and WCCO Minneapolis. He was Vice President of Programming for Emmis International, Greater Media Inc., and Coleman Research. Andy also served as communications director for Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio). He can be reached by email at andy@andybloom.com or you can follow him on Twitter at @AndyBloomCom.

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2 thoughts on “Andy Bloom: Vance shows Trump how it’s done”

  1. So once again the man from Minnesota tries to tell the residents of Philadelphia and the metro area from over 1100 miles away what they should believe.

    “Brennan somewhat snarkily advised both men they couldn’t be heard because their mics had been cut off. .” I saw that moment to, there was no snark, just a moderator reminding both men why the mics were turned off. Due to rules that both groups agreed to.

    “Vance was fact-checked a total of three times, while Walz was not fact-checked at all” & “Walz tried to explain this (Tiananmen Square) bald-faced lie by saying his community knows who he is with this statement”. I thought you said Vance was not fact checked.

    “It’s too bad Trump didn’t have a debate performance as good as Vance’s.” Your right, Trump lost all self control and looked the dangerous foo that he is. While Vance, who is the Senator from Ohio, supported the claim that Hattians in Springfield, Oh. A few days later he said it never happened, but justified it by claiming that its okay to lie if it gets the medias attention. Even though that lie resulted in over 30 bomb threats, closing of schools, and police escorts for children’s school buses.

    Mr. Bloom should read the “Chicken Little”, “The Boy who cried Wolf”, or true stories about Emmet Till and other black men who were lynched based on lies. Lets remember at the end of the day it will the President who is the decider, not the Vice President. Trump listens to no one but himself and his cronies.

    1. Judah… I agree with you. These B + L writers are full of it.
      1210 AM… you already hit these 3 talking points… LITERALLY VERBATIM… during today’s 10.2.24’s Rich Zeoli’s show:
      1.Really? Vice President Knucklehead? As if one of the Three Stooges could become vice president.
      2. another lie. Walz was not in Asia during the democracy protest, which ended in Tiananmen Square. A Nebraska newspaper from the time shows that Walz was actually there and not in Asia at the time.
      3. This [was] one time that Vance should have responded directly to Walz. He has misspoken about his rank, about carrying weapons of war when he never was in an active combat zone, about IVF, about his DUI, and more.
      Walz did a decent job during the debate – and I HATE the Dems because they are the clowns that locked us down during Covid.
      Vance looks like a vampire in drag. He is a lying Ivy league sell out to the highest corrupt bidder.

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