Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance and Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz will meet for their first and only debate on Tuesday, hosted by CBS News at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York.
Two veteran journalists—CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell, and Face the Nation moderator and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan—will moderate the V.P. debate.
According to the Associated Press, "CBS News will not live fact-check during the debate, sparing us a repeat of the ABC News moderators, who only fact-checked former President Trump while allowing Kamala Harris to get away with numerous lies about abortion, Trump's prior statements, the economy, the border, and the number of American service members abroad. Hopefully, this will return the debate to the neutral environment of the June 27 Atlanta debate, where the CNN moderators maintained neutrality." Coming back to the candidates, the choice of vice president by the person at the top of the ticket is often the most consequential of a campaign.
For former President Trump, Vance's selection was critical because of the bad blood spilled on January 6, 2021, during the first Trump presidency. Then, Vice President Mike Pence fell out of favor with Trump and the MAGA movement when he denied Trump's requests to administratively delay the certification of electors and to send the matter back to the states. Many MAGA supporters believe that America's miseries during the last four years could have been prevented had Pence shown resolve, although it is not entirely clear whether such an action could have survived a constitutional challenge from Biden's team at the time. Pence kept his calm for several months after that unfortunate incident, but he mounted a campaign to run against Trump last year in the primaries. That campaign went nowhere, and Pence quickly dropped out. Grinding a grudge, Pence has continued to distance himself from Trump, getting well established in the Uniparty NeoCon cabal of Never Trumpers, joining Liz Cheney, Nikki Haley, and Adam Kinzinger. Haley, recently, has reluctantly come out to endorse Trump, but not Pence.
When Trump picked Vance this time, he surprised many MAGA loyalists because Vance had been a staunch Trump critic, only embracing Trump during his Ohio Senate run. Since entering the Senate, Vance has become a strong Trump advocate.
Vice President Harris has repeatedly said that picking Walz was the most crucial career decision she has ever made. She said the same thing last week when appearing before Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC. If Walz doesn't do well, it would expose Harris as having failed in her first significant decision as the future Chief Executive.
The stakes are extraordinarily high for both candidates. Constitutionally, the vice president is only a heartbeat away from the presidency. Vice presidential debates are to convince the audience that Vance and Walz have the mental acumen and physical capability to take over if their president is incapacitated. Such a situation is not abnormal. Seven presidents - John Tyler (1841), Millard Fillmore (1850), Andrew Johnson (1865), Chester Arthur (1881), Calvin Coolidge (1923), Harry Truman (1945), and Lyndon Johnson (1963) - ascended to the top spot from being vice presidents as their president died in office (in the case of Johnson, Arthur, and LBJ, the ascension happened because the president was killed).
Presidential nominees also choose their running mages to balance out the skill equation in the White House. Bush 43 chose Dick Cheney for his expertise in foreign policy, although Cheney's leadership was disastrous, and America entered an unnecessary war in Iraq. Obama chose Joe Biden because Biden was a veteran of the United States Senate who knew how to navigate the clubby chamber to get legislation passed. Besides, as a first-term senator, Obama knew little about foreign policy, and by picking Biden, who had served on the Foreign Relations Committee and was its chairman, he assured world powers that America would continue its global leadership.
We now know what a terrible choice Obama made when he picked Biden. Robert Gates, who served as defense secretary under both Presidents Bush and Obama, wrote in his 2014 memoir about Biden: "I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." Gates's observation has proved accurate time and time again. Under Biden-Harris, the world is truly on fire.
Tim Walz and JD Vance do not bring any meaningful expertise to their respective nominees, so they have a taller threshold to meet.
Walz's challenge. Walz's challenge is to prove that he is a worthy official with the right temperament to fill in for Kamala Harris if she becomes indisposed. On paper, he has a better resume than Vance, having been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019 and the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee from 2017 to 2019. For the last five years, he has served as the 41st governor of Minnesota. Regarding his character, Walz's controversial service for nearly 24 years as a U.S. Army non-commissioned officer will undoubtedly be a topic of discussion.
Vance's challenge. Vance's task is vastly more complex. He has to prove that he is a worthy successor who will continue the America First movement started by Trump. Already, the deposed Beltway GOP class—Liz Cheney, Nikki Haley, Adam Kinzinger, and Jeff Flake—is drooling in the hopes that Vance will fail so that they can reclaim their leadership of the old Republican Party. If the Trump-Vance ticket wins in November, Vance will be the leader for the MAGA/GOP nomination in 2028. By then, the GOP could be fully rebranded as the MAGA party.
We have a few tips for Sen. Vance.
1. Act presidential. Don't pander to the moderators by calling them Nora or Margaret. This annoying practice is expected to convey friendliness, but it comes across as pandering. Even Kamala Harris did not address MSNBC's Ruhle as Stephanie.
2. Present yourself authentically. While people have become accustomed to certain aspects of Trump's style—like his strong body language and the tendency to emphasize his points and focus on past grievances—you can offer something different. Stay true to yourself and let your demeanor reflect a calm, steady presence that contrasts with what people may expect from the debate stage.
Show us that you are that soft-spoken, distinguished Yale graduate who can sweet-talk your way out of a problematic situation like you did this week at the Pennsylvania Pizza and Sandwich store. We need you to be the finesse in contrast to Trump's brash talk so the campaign can win back any Independents considering Harris-Walz only because they project a kinder, joyous demeanor.
3. Talk about the new MAGA party. Talk about the excellent coalition of leaders that Trump has assembled to transform America, including RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Elon Musk. The current MAGA movement is a new way forward—unlike Harris's new way forward, which is the same old tired tricks of excessive government spending and social engineering bordering on communism.
As the debate unfolds, Vance will need the eye of the tiger and the thrill of the fight, stepping into the ring to defend Trump's America First agenda against all challengers.
We can't wait for tomorrow at 9 PM ET.
