Amy and T.J. breakdown tonight’s civil and substantive debate between Republican Senator JD Vance and Democratic Governor Tim Walz. They talk about the best and worst moments of the evening and their thoughts on how the moderators handled , and broke their own rule of leaving the fact checking to the candidates and the QR code.
Welcome everyone to a special edition of Amy and TJ, where we stayed up with probably a lot of you all listening to watch the vice presidential debate this evening, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. TJ. It was civil. It was substantive. I can't ever say that word very well, but they really went into the issues, and they actually were respectful of one another, and they reserved whatever negativity they had towards the top of the ticket, towards their running mates and not towards one another. And I was shocked, but in a good way.
I guess it's unfortunately where we are if we are shocked that two people political opponents can be civil and decent to each other, which if you all weren't able to stay up and watch the entire thing, then that is thing number one. I suppose, just to see them come out and smile and be pleasant and shake hands at the top, even through the moderators off for a second, that everybody was on stage in a position when it started. They did kind of some introductions, and the two guys, not being prompted on their own, they went over and shook hands, and it threw the moderators off, they had to kind of pause, and even seemed like the director of the thing didn't even realize that moment was going to happen. Tonally throughout you heard them go back and forth a time and say, I agree with you on that. I think we're on the same page. I think you're decent. I think you also don't want that to happen. It was incredible to hear two politicians at this stage do that, and I wish we saw more of that day and day out.
Yeah. I even heard one of the media commentators afterwards say I wish these two could be running for president. And I think a lot of Americans who watched that, who listened to it may have thought the same thing, because we have not seen this type of political debate where you're actually just debating the issues and not lobbing attacks at one another's I can't remember the last time I've seen something so civil and something so informative.
Although the attacks were on policy, and I'm okay with that.
Yes, we argue exactly over.
Points in what you believe and I believe, and they reserve those attacks for the folks at the top of the ticket. But what we're used to seeing. Are these are personal attacks? I don't remember, necessarily, as I sit here and remind me, maybe there was no. I don't remember a single personal attack. It was even a moment where Jadie Vans say, hey, I didn't know your son had that experience. When Waltz was talking about his son witness of shooting, he sounded sympathetic, He sounded like he had.
A real human moment with another human being.
We even saw that moment criticized later by some of the commentators in the post debate coverage saying, well, yeah, he's good at putting on and pretending like he's your friend and he's nice, and like even that moment.
Questioning his authenticity because it's almost too hard to believe. Now, I'll be interested to see because historically speaking, or at least in the past several I believe the data is for the past six presidential elections, watching a vice presidential debate hasn't really moved the needle at all. They cite back to you have to go back to two thousand, where there was a one point two percent change with Dick Cheney sparring against Joseph Lieberman. That was George Bush versus al Gore, but still all the other vice presidential debates, there is no noticeable change. But I would say in this particular case, it's interesting and it will be interesting to see if the polls shift it all because of course we're neck and neck right now, too close to call between right now former President Trump and Kamala Harris Vice President Kamala Harris. But not many people know JD. Vance, Not many people know Tim Wall. So this was really an introduction for a lot of voters to meet these two men and see where they fall in policy.
I think vans.
I think both of them came as advertised in a lot of ways, the down home the folks see the football coach, the elementary school teacher of in Waltz.
And yeah, I mean we got an Ivy.
League educated, best selling author, a senator from a very important state. I mean they both kind of came as advertised. And I think Vance and everybody it is not us saying this. Vance was sharp. It was not a question about it. He was well prepared. He was sharp. You see why he's good and people talk about him the way they do. He is a sharp debater. He knows his policy and he knows how to navigate on this type of stage. Waltz, as many has said, didn't have enough reps roads leading into the night, and it showed he hadn't done enough national interviews and the statement we heard is not ready for prime time.
Quite did.
He gained his footing later, but he did start off on a nervous note.
He definitely started off on a nervous note. And as you point out, jd Vance came out just polished, and in fact, it's interesting not only watching the debate and watching different networks cover the debate. One of the only arguments or negative common that you could even hear some journalists who tend to be left leaning. The only argument they made against Jadevance was that he was quote unquote too polished. I don't know that that's a thing, but that's as bad of a lob as they could throw against him. Now we also know President Trump, by the way, if you weren't paying attention, was involved in social media throughout much of in fact, throughout the entire debate, and he was debating sometimes furiously, sometimes two times in one minute, and he was not tonally in line with his vice presidential candidate. He threw the lobs out and he went hard against Tim Waltz. He was calling him tampon Tim pretty much throughout the entire social media tirade that he put out for everyone to see. And he was basically calling Tim Waltz, a nickname that a lot of right wing critics have been using for the past several months, basically attacking him on his administration's policy at providing free menstrual products in all school bathrooms. I don't know how that's going to sit with any undecided voters, certainly with any undecided female voters. But he went with that and kept on it throughout the night.
But these were adults.
A lot of people argue that that Kamala Harris gave people of an option a third option so they could get away from the two options they didn't want. A lot of people didn't want Trump, a lot of people didn't want Biden. And it seemed like we had a capable adult in the room. We saw on stage tonight, two capable dudes. They seem like adults in the room. Look, this is not and were robes And I are not here to argue policy or break down and do all the fact checking. You have plenty of pundits in everybody on TV that'll do that, but as viewers, as journalists, as observers, and as folks who've covered a lot of this stuff, this was one of the more substantive debates you will see. They got into some good policy discussions, certainly on healthcare, about the Middle East, what we're seeing right now with Housabala Aaran and Israel. It was a good debate, and gun control question came up. That was a good debate about family and abortion. You can disagree with what some of them saying and say this guy is lying, but it's still it was a respectful, tonally respectful, and healthy debate.
I'm okay with what we saw.
Tonight exactly and not in addition to some of the topics that they discussed things that really matter to American voters. They talked about immigration, border patrol, they talked about affordable housing, affordable prescription drugs, tax credits. And one of the things that was interesting to me, obviously we've been talking about Hurricane Helene and the unbelievable devastation, deadly devastation in the southeast. But the second question I was a little surprised in the debate was on climate change, and it actually got quite a lot of time compared to some of the other other topics or subjects that they covered. But they really went into that, which was a little surprising to me.
I was about to say, what did you think about that? In it?
I guess that's the I don't know if an opinion on whether or not that should be why not? It's a very important topic to a lot of people. Maybe not at the top of the list for a lot of folks, but it's certainly an important question.
I guess why not? I see a lot of people are applauding.
That it was at high up yep and jd Vance. You know, we know that we've heard former President Trump talk about climate change as being a hoax. Jd Vance did not take that line. So we did see some moments where Jadie Vance and Donald Trump don't necessarily see eye to eye, But he was very I thought he Both men did a very good job explaining their stances on how they feel about climate change and how it's contributed to some of the devastating weather events we've seen in recent years.
There were a few moments that will stand out. You're probably gonna see repeated I guess one. I guess the moment of the night didn't come to the end of the night, and I guess this would have been probably viewed as an overwhelming victory, if you will, for JD. Vans had it not been for this. It's like he had waltz on the ropes all night and then all of a sudden walts in the eleventh and twelfth round. It starts throwing haymakers. But he asked a direct question to JD. Vance if you believe Donald Trump lost the election, and he wouldn't give him a straight answer. I was very surprised he wasn't better prepared to give something because that sounds that's a direct something we're four years now removed from that. Did he lose the election? And your answer to this day still can be well, yeah, the voters spoken, here we are something he just said. He gave an answer like a kid would give on a playground, and an argument, well, I know you are, but one of mine.
He said, well, you're not talking about censorship. So he just completely and he hadn't done that all night. He actually if he did go off and decided to say what he wanted to say, which he did, in all politicians do this, but he always redirected what he was saying back to answer specifically the question that was asked of him, which I appreciated as a journalist and I think a lot of listeners and voters appreciate because we don't usually get that from politicians. And we saw both men directly answering questions except for that one moment, and it stood out. It was stark, and it was disappointing, frankly, because whatever his opinion is, I think all of us deserve to know what it was. And he refused to give it. And that was definitely a problem and a low moment and one of the very rare and perhaps one of the only bad moments for JdE Bans was when he chose not to answer that question, and that was certainly deliberate.
The other substance of thing that people were scratching their heads about is that he was making the argument that President Trump was the one and who in fact saved Obamacare.
Yes, a lot of people say that's absurd.
He was trying to make a connection and a point to how Trump was in there and decided, well, we can't gut it. He tried to gut the thing and didn't get it done. So now he tried to make some improvements to it or at least make it soluble.
He promised he ran on abolishing it, and then now Jade Vance wants to give him credit for saving it.
So he couldn't do that thing, so now he's trying to say he saved it. A lot of people call bs on that he's trying to make that argument. So those are two things at least where substantively a lot of people argue jd Vance didn't have an argument to stand up now.
Of course, Governor Tim Waltz had a couple of really tough moments as well, and the one that I think most people will remember was his answer on whether or not he was present as he had previously stated multiple times at Tianneman Square. Eventually he had to acknowledge that he misspoke and he actually quoted he said, I'm a knucklehead, which you know that is going to be used at nauseum and Trump advertisements to come, and there will be something else that he said that will be used at nauseum, because we already saw Trump talking about this on social media. Of course, the other moment for Governor Waltz was a tough one. When he was talking about school shooters. He said he misspoke. He I don't even know if he realized he said it. I don't think he knew he said it. We've all done this before when speaking in front of a live audience. I know I have. But he said, I am friends with school shooters.
He was trying to make the argument of how his position had changed on something because actually he changed his position on gun control on some gun control legislation because he had met with the families and become friends with the families who had people who had died in school shootings. Is what he was trying to say.
And it came out, I've become friends with school shooters, and it just.
Went crazy on Twitter. That isn't honest. Just misspoke.
It wasn't a stupid he didn't mix up policy, he didn't stutter, he just he just that just happened.
And former President Trump's already posted that video clip and yes and memes featuring that remark and he and he did it throughout the evening. So if you missed it on the actual debate itself, it's probably everywhere on social media. As we speak this and so.
But that Tienamant Square moment was that was tough. It was tough to listen to his answer when he there was a discrepancy. He said he was somewhere, and now it's been proven that he was not there. Tenaman Square doing during that those those famous moments, he started his answer talking about, well, I grew up in a town with four hundred people, you know, the kind of places.
We just ride your bike around.
What yes? Is?
What you really did say that out loud?
What it's It's one of these. Both of the men, when asked a direct question, instead of just giving a direct answer and then going into explaining yourself, which would be far more preferable, they start with some explanation that you even forget what the question was that was being asked of them. It's almost to distract and to deflect. But at the end you still know you haven't answered the question. So when I believe it was Margaret Brennan who redirected, said but still you haven't really said whether or not you were there or not, you know, were you there? Then he had to directly say I misspoke. I'm a knucklehead. But he wouldn't give the answer initially, and that's always problematic when you're listening to you just you always say, why can't you just start with I misspoke, I was wrong, I apologize and then explain you can talk about your childhood and how I grew up and how people know you. There he was trying to make that connection that people know he's not a bad person, or that he's not a liar or whatever it was. It did not land. That's a good way to put it.
It was clear.
The theme for advance for the night was and he repeated this, I mean tons of times throughout the night, was just, Hey, you keep talking about what you're gonna do. What you're gonna do on day one you've had he had an exact number of days that they've been in office, Like, why haven't you done all this stuff in this days in office?
What are you talking about? Day one? You're gonna do? What?
Why haven't you done her already? Go do it now you're in office right now. That was a theme and he really really drove that point home to the voters.
And it's a decent one to make.
What did you think TJ about Nora O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan not fact checking. Now, they did a couple of times, but they went into it saying they weren't going to and that wasn't the plan, and allowing the candidates to fact check one another. I didn't mind how it went. How did you feel about it?
I didn't.
I thought it was unfortun I mean, it's a tough It's almost an impossible job to be honest. I always say it's an impossible job doing a presidential vice presidential debate at this stage. The problem is that they made a point early on to say we're going to stay out of it. Fine, you questioned that, Let's see how that's going to go. He put a QR code up you can check. You can click on it yourself and then go to a fact checking website. That's fine, they made the point. But when so many people all just looking for ways to criticize the media as left leaning. The first two times they broke that rule, it was to fact check.
Jd Vance correct. That's a problem.
I mean, it's just even if they had a legitimate are you no, you said you were.
He said you were going to.
Why are you going after that guy?
Let Governor Waltz do it as you said you would, yes, and Trump was one of the first things he put out on social media. Margaret Brennan just fact check JD incorrectly on climate change. When is she going to fact check tampon Tim on all of his false statements. Another repeat with the fake news being unfair to the Republican candidate and trying to get the pathetic democrat across the finish line. Unfortunately, when those things happened.
We deserve that criticism.
Yes, yes, we asked for that one. I agree with that completely and it was that is a tough part to watch. But in terms of what they didn't talk about, there were a lot of discussions about the topics that were chosen, and never once was Ukraine mentioned, NATO mentioned, Afghanistan mentioned, And of course they started out with foreign policy at the beginning, but they didn't hold either candidate really to get specific about what they would do, how they would handle Israel, Iran, all of that. It was really left unopen ended and there were no follow ups. And some people have criticized that because clearly the tensions in the situation we're in right now, this is a huge, huge global issue that's going to have far reaching effects here in this country, and how and who is leading our country in these troubled times is important. So a lot of people feel like that was a mist a very big missed topic.
You and I have been talking about it on our daily I mean we've been talking about it all for the past five days. The Longshortman strike. I was very surprised that didn't come up. I mean that strike literally, it's.
Going to be huge.
It started on the day of the debate, yes, and it didn't come up at all. That was a bit of a surprise, certainly, a big economic story like that.
So that was the one that kind of surprised me.
But I it's the moderators are going to be talked about a lot. They're already being talked about a lot. They were being talked about a lot during.
The the debate. It's it's we say it all the time.
That an impossible job, but these there was an opportunity here for CBS News, an opportunity here. I was excited to see them take a hands off approach. I thought it would be difficult. We talked about it like, as a journalist, you hear something is wrong, you call somebody on it. So I know that's difficult to sit on it, but there was even a moment tonight robes and it's hard to and I hate to to criticize folks who are sitting in that position, but there was. It didn't come off well. At one point when JD Vans, when he being fact checked, he said, wait a second, y'all said, he interrupted. They tried to move on. He said, no, no, no, y'all said, the rules are, but now you're fact checking me, so let me get in here.
And he spoke up and it was.
Talking about the CBP one application having to do with immigration and the Haitians and gave his answer.
Her response to him it was it sounded sarcastic. Yeah, that it didn't That moment didn't come off well. She essentially okay, yeah, thank you for explaining the legal process to it.
It didn't come off well.
She did say thank you so much for describing that legal process to JD. Vance, And it did come off as sarcastic, and again, more to that point than it seemed as though it was a job against Jade Vance. And regardless of how you feel about what he was saying or his policy or his politics on immigration, I know you E weren like, good for you. Good for you, because if you're going to fact check me. He really pushed his way through and made sure that he was able to basically fact check himself in that sense, or at least have a rebuttal to their fact check. So that was interesting. I also I liked that their mics weren't cut off. I mean, they did cut them off at one point when they wanted to move on, but other than and that was that was an awkward moment, and I don't know that I agreed with that choice because I truly appreciated watching them go back and forth because it wasn't mean spirited, it wasn't childish. It actually was interesting and informative, and I wanted more of that. So I I wish they hadn't cut the mics off in that moment, But the rest of the debate I really liked the mics.
On to your point, it's weird you have to have different rules with different candidates. If you'd have left the mics up for others possibly who were debate that weren't those two guys, maybe it wouldn't have gone that way. But they were even with the mics up, even when they jumped in. It seemed like a back and forth, whether just rather than just an interruption or a rude interruption. It seemed like it was a part of legitimate back and forth and debate, and sometimes you talk over each other. It was respectful, I thought.
I mean, I so personally, I would like that to be the case for even the presidential debates, because don't I want to see how the leader who I'm going to choose to represent me in our country, how they handled tense moments, how they handled difficult conversations, how they handled being attacked or being insulted. This could be a conversation with a foreign leader. I want to see how they handle themselves under pressure, when they're maybe even under attack. So I would appreciate the mics being up because I think that's an important part of who we're voting for and who were putting in this office, is their temperament and their reactions and how they treat other people when they're angry or when they're being accused of something. So anyway, I really appreciated seeing these two men debate, and I appreciated their mics being left on most of the time.
But to your point, when they did cut the mics. It seemed like there was a time when Jade Vans was trying to make a point and they wanted to shut him down again. It's just I hate will already going into it. The moderators are at a disadvantage because people are looking at the left leaning media and there's going to be biased, and you just you have feed it by doing what they did. I thought it was a good idea. Fine, we're not going to referee it, We're just going to give you the questions and step out of the way, and almost immediately they didn't do that.
It was It was also interesting because I was so into the debate and listening to what these men had to say, because they were actually saying things I wanted to listen to. I never once did the QR code with my phone, and I don't know if anyone else did. I wish I had, but honestly, I was so into the debate I wasn't even thinking about doing it. But perhaps that could have been a useful source of information as I was watching it. But that's tough. You know, I'm not good at multitasking, so if I'm listening, it's really hard for me to do the QR code and then start reading, and then I wouldn't be listening to what they were saying. That's the only problem with the QR code for me is that it's just hard to do in real time.
It was an interesting it was an engaging and it wasn't a nasty debate. I appreciated it, and we're not going to get another one for four years now because this is essentially the only last debate of the campaign season.
Yeah, we got one presidential debate and one vice presidential debate, and.
Most we got two presidential debates. Oh you're right, Oh wow, yeah, different democratic.
The other one is probably best forgotten for most, but no, it was one that will go down in the history books forever. So I stand corrected, TJ. You're right. We had two presidential debates and one vice presidential debate, and we now have how many days thirty something days to decide who will be the next president and vice president of the United States. I hope that tonight's debate, if anyone is undecided or is on the fence, that maybe this gave them the information they needed to make the best choice for themselves.
And folks, this was said at the end of debate, at close to the end of the bay. We've got to shake hands at the end, and he'll have my prayers, best wishes, and my help whenever he needs it. That I'm not even gonna tell you who said it, because it doesn't matter. They said this on stage tonight, So it doesn't matter if the Democrat said or the Republican said it. That that was the tone that was on stage tonight that I appreciate it the folk. If you look at these two guys, you can't just start with okay, they're decent dudes. I disagree with his policy. I strongly disagree with his policy. I really hate that policy. That's okay, But if we just start with that foundation that these guys seem to start with, it's a decent man across the stage from me, it seemed like they at least started with that.
Yeah, and you know, maybe it's something to it. I don't know that both of these men haven't been in the national spotlight for very long. They've done they've been local leaders and local politicians. But these two are fairly I think it's fair to they're newcomers to the national political stage in a lot of ways. Most people don't know them, and it gives me a little bit of hope that maybe the future isn't what the recent past has been in terms of political debate. And I just feel like if I saw these two men, I feel like they could actually potentially get a bill passed together, you know, something that we don't usually see in Congress. So I just felt a little hopeful at the end of this debate, and I hope many of you did too. I feel better today than I did yesterday.
You didn't say that at the end of the last two Well what a night, folks. So we always appreciate you spending a little time with us here on Amy and TJ. But for now, TJ Holme sitting across from Amy Robot. What time is it here? Almost midnight?
It's almost midnight as we record this thing.
I'm going to get a couple hours of sleep and we'll see y'all. If you want to join us on the morning run, we'll be up for that as well tomorrow
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