The “Morning Joe” panel expressed disappointment during a Wednesday segment over Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s inability to combat his opponent J.D. Vance during the vice presidential debate.
The panelists said Walz did not bring up some of the Harris campaign’s key attacks against Vance, and criticized his explanation of falsely claiming that he was in Hong Kong during the deadly protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, in 1989. NBC News political analyst Elise Jordan said Walz’s answer made the incident worse and that he attempted to present himself in an inauthentic manner on stage.
“I was disappointed, I felt like the reasons that Kamala Harris chose Governor Walz didn’t really come out last night,” Jordan said. “The Governor Walz who was joking, who was free flowing in interviews, who was kind of that guy in your hometown who’s a local leader and he’s a lot of fun but he can be serious. I just saw someone trying to be who he wasn’t, and it allowed J.D. Vance to just skate through. It was disappointing too that Governor Walz just didn’t have a better answer for why he had said previously that he was in Tiananmen Square when he wasn’t. You know, something he could have easily said ‘I misspoke, I’m sorry,’ but instead, he almost made it worse.”
Co-host Mika Brzezinski said Walz could have given a better answer by taking a swipe at Vance and Republican nominee Donald Trump. Panelist Jonathan Lemire also pointed out how Walz never even brought up Vance’s views on the Ukraine War, his comments on “childless cat ladies” and only mentioned Project 2025 once.
“Governor Walz sort of took a pass on what could have been some pretty devastating attacks,” Lemire said. “He didn’t mention the weird issue, he never brought up childless cat ladies, just never came up. He didn’t talk about Ukraine, where Vance has made clear he has no interest in supporting Kyiv. He only brought Project 2025 once, and that’s an issue that’s been so effective for Democrats.”
Vance came under fire by Democrats and the liberal media for branding some Democratic women as “childless cat ladies” during an appearance on Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson’s former show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” in 2021. The Ohio senator said during an NBC interview in September that Democrats have “willfully misinterpreted” his sarcastic comment about how the Democratic Party has become “anti-family.”
The Trump campaign has distanced itself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a policy outline and personnel list to help the next Republican president. The Harris campaign has falsely suggested that the Trump campaign will enact Project 2025 if they enter office.
Walz branded Vance as “weird” during an interview in July, sparking Democrats and liberal media pundits to repeatedly use the term as a line of attack against Vance and Trump.
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