Editor’s note: Big Tent Ideas always aims to provide balancing perspectives on the hottest issues of the day. Below is a column from Nicole Kiprilov, where she argues that J.D. Vance outperformed Gov. Tim Walz during Tuesday night’s debate. You can find a counterpoint here, where Christian Whiton argues that Vance narrowly lost.
Gov. Tim Walz’s poor, at best, performance at the Vice Presidential debate last night was the culmination of weeks of egregious lies and blunders from the Kamala Harris campaign.
It was the epitome of what the Harris-Walz ticket is all about: desperately struggling to cover up years of failures in an attempt to gaslight the American people into voting for the most radical political agenda in history. (RELATED: CHRISTIAN WHITON: Vance Narrowly Lost — But It Won’t Matter)
In stark contrast, Sen. J.D. Vance demonstrated a unique strength in both policy and optics. Each of his responses sent a clear message to the American people, which is that the Trump-Vance agenda is authentic, humane, common sense, relatable, and exactly what this country needs and wants. Sen. Vance, unlike Gov. Walz, understands who the American people are and how to be a true public servant to them.
Right from the outset of the debate, Gov. Walz came across as nervous and uneasy. He fumbled his answers, scribbled excessive notes, severely stumbled when attempting to defend his false claim that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests, and most importantly, continued to lie about Vice President Harris’ horrific record.
As an example, Walz commented on Vice President Harris’ “steady leadership” in the wake of Iran’s ballistic missile attack on Israel, when the facts clearly show that, under the Harris administration, Iran has received billions of dollars to finance their terrorism and get them as close as possible to the development of a nuclear weapon.
Sen. Vance provided coherent and truthful answers to questions about abortion, a traditionally difficult subject area for Republicans. He even held the clearly-biased moderators accountable for providing false information about the legal status of Haitian migrants in Ohio, clarifying that they are not, in fact, legal immigrants and that Vice President Harris’ deeply flawed process for granting them legal status is only fueling our unprecedented illegal immigration crisis.
Throughout the debate, which even CNN acknowledged as a clear victory for Sen. Vance, Gov. Walz repeatedly failed to explain why Kamala Harris has allowed for more than 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide to live outside immigration detention.
He repeatedly failed to explain why Vice President Harris, who Senator Vance pointed out is the incumbent, has allowed for unprecedented levels of sex trafficking, rape and other heinous crimes, drug imports, and an overall increase of illegal immigration by 250% since she took office.
In what was perhaps one of the classiest and most respectable political debate performances, Sen. Vance did not even blast Gov. Walz on his disastrous record as Governor of Minnesota – pushing through CRT, SEL, and DEI in Minnesota classrooms, passing radical legislation on genital mutilation surgery and other “gender-affirming” care, and letting Minnesota burn during the riots of 2020.
Sen. Vance’s strategy instead was to show the American people that his own confidence in his stances on critical issues comes from a deep loyalty to his values, not just as a political figure but as a human being. On numerous occasions, Sen. Vance gave the floor to Gov. Walz, who, in failing to provide coherent responses, showed the American people that he is unfit to be Vice President. He balked under pressure and ended up agreeing with many of Sen. Vance’s points throughout the night.
Ultimately, defending the truth is much easier than defending years of lies, as Sen. Vance pointed out when he displayed sympathy for Gov. Walz being put in a position of having to “play whack-a-mole.” While aggressive coaching on how to spin narratives and fabricate lies may have worked, albeit temporarily, for Vice President Harris, it certainly did not work for Governor Walz, who should fire his strategists for their colossal failure in preparing him for last night’s debate.
Even more important than Sen. Vance’s intelligence, likability and normalcy is his stellar track record backing up every one of his claims last night. One of Gov. Walz’s biggest “gotchas” during the debate that he kept reverting to when he had nothing else to go on, which happened an unacceptable number of times, was that Senator Vance and President Trump are not in alignment on all policy positions.
Instead of that being a weakness, it actually perfectly demonstrates why the Trump-Vance partnership is such a strong one for America — both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are authentic, real people with incredible histories, strong convictions and years of demonstrated success as public servants. Donald Trump has literally risked his life and the lives of his entire family for the American people.
J.D. Vance and his young family are, every day, experiencing a heightened security risk for standing alongside Donald Trump to fight the Left’s radical, anti-American agenda and expose the corruption and rot at the root of our institutions, all in the name of saving our beautiful country.
It is important to remember that neither Donald Trump nor J.D. Vance needs to be doing this. But they continue to fight for the American people because they are the only ones who can get our country back on track.
Nicole Kiprilov is a Republican political operative, consultant, and currently the Executive Director of the Coalition for Military Excellence (CME).
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/CNN/”CNN Special Event: Vice Presidential Debate Hosted by CBS”)
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