Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appeared underprepared for his vice presidential debate against Ohio Senator JD Vance, according to CNN‘s anchors.
The candidates on Tuesday night met for their first and likely only matchup of the 2024 election, fielding questions on issues from reproductive rights to the escalating tensions in the Middle East. The debate provided an opportunity for Walz and Vance to further introduce themselves to the American public, and a chance to bolster their respective campaigns’ messages in an increasingly tight race for the White House.
It’s unclear how voters received Walz and Vance’s performances, although CNN anchor Abby Phillip, the network’s senior political correspondent, said after the event that the Democratic vice presidential nominee allowed his Republican counterpart to land “a lot of punches” on Tuesday night, telling colleagues Dana Bash and Jake Tapper that “Tim Walz did not seem prepared” for such attacks.
“He [Walz] didn’t respond to a lot of the criticisms and attacks that Vance put on the table,” Phillip added. “He allowed some clear falsehoods to just go completely unanswered.”
Bash chimed in later in the discussion, saying that she agreed there was “a clear lack” of “execution” by Walz but added that she believes the governor “had too much preparation.”
“He had so many lines that he was clearly trying to say that he didn’t listen” to Vance, Bash told colleagues.
“I think the lack of interviews that he has done with national media, with local media, it showed,” Bash added. “[Walz] needed more reps.”
It’s unclear how either Walz or Vance’s performance could sway voters come Election Day in five weeks. But given that no second debate is scheduled between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, there was likely more pressure on the vice presidential candidates to deliver on the national stage.
The first half of the moderators’ questions on Tuesday were directed at issues that have weighed down Harris’ campaign, including inflation, immigration and the Biden administration’s handling of foreign affairs. But the pressure eventually turned to Vance, who had to answer for his past statements on abortion restrictions and dodged a question from Walz about whether Trump lost the 2020 presidential election.
The former president has baselessly maintained that his reelection campaign against President Joe Biden was stolen from him due to voter fraud. Vance said on Tuesday when asked about such statements that he is “focused on the future.”
Democratic analyst David Axelrod, ex-strategist to former President Barack Obama, said during an appearance on CNN Tuesday night that he believes Walz’s first answer of the night on the Middle East “was probably one of his weakest” but that the governor “closed strong.”
Axelrod also highlighted that Vance “had a mission” for his debate performance, “and that mission was to be what Donald Trump isn’t, which is to sound reasonable, to be courteous to the opponent, to acknowledge that there may be some reasonableness in the opponent’s argument …”
“Bottom line on this, I don’t think it changes the race at all,” Axelrod later added. “It was an interesting night. I don’t think it changes the race at all.”
Roosevelt University Professor David Faris, an opinion writer for Newsweek, agreed that Vance “was an effective messenger for the narrative that Trump was incapable of delivering” during his debate against Harris last month, which is “that Republicans will take us back to 2019.”
“Unflappable and often craven, Vance was relentlessly on message,” Faris wrote Tuesday. “Tim Walz came off as authentic—often authentically flummoxed—and relatable … But overall, he left too many opportunities to corner Vance on the table.”
Doug Gordon, Democratic strategist and opinion writer at Newsweek, echoed that Walz “is clearly more comfortable at a state fair th[a]n in a debate setting” but said the governor “held his own against a flood of lies and misinformation from JD Vance.”
“The debate was substantive but likely will not do much to change the trajectory of this race,” Gordon wrote to Newsweek on Tuesday, but added that the debate “continued the momentum” for the Harris campaign, and determined Walz as the winner.
When reached for comment Tuesday night, Trump’s campaign said in a statement that Vance “unequivocally won tonight’s debate in dominating fashion.”
“Senator Vance spoke the truth, eloquently prosecuted the case against Kamala Harris’ failed record, and effectively held Governor Tim Walz accountable for his lies on behalf of the Harris-Biden Administration,” read the statement shared with Newsweek, which was signed by Trump campaign strategists Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita.
Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement Tuesday night that Walz “showed exactly why Vice President Harris picked him: he is a leader who cares about the issues that matter most to the American people.”
“In the debate, Americans got to see a real contrast: a straight talker focused on sharing real solutions, and a slick politician who spent the whole night defending Donald Trump’s divisions and failures,” Dillon added.
Update 10/02/24, 12:34 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information, including comment from Trump’s campaign.
