JD Vance: Why I Ignored Tim Walz During Debate

By many pundits’ accounts, JD Vance wiped the floor with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz during their October 1 vice presidential debate. Walz proclaimed himself a “knucklehead,” claimed he was friends with school shooters, and generally just seemed nervous and weird.

But Vance had an unusual strategy—he decided to mostly ignore his opponent and not focus on all his radical policies. Instead, he wanted to highlight how extreme Democrat ~~appointee~~ nominee Kamala Harris is.

Speaking on “The Vince Coglianese Show,” the Ohio senator said he could have attacked Walz’s very checkered record:

"I was trying to convince people who weren’t fully aware just how radical and incompetent Harris’ time in government has been. I sorta of went into this thing, ‘Yeah, I could attack Tim Walz over his record, over his misrepresentations, over the tampons in the boys bathrooms or any number of other crazy things that he’s done,” Vance said.

Instead, he chose to hone in on Kamala’s flaws:

“But I realized most Americans still don’t have a strong view of Kamala Harris, so why not use my opportunity to talk about her record. To criticize the way that she has actually run the administration over the last three and a half years. To criticize her for the open border, for casting the tie breaking vote on trillions of dollars of new spending,” Vance added. “Just really to introduce to the American people why I think Kamala Harris has been so ineffective and why Donald Trump’s time in office was much better when it comes to things like a secure border and rising take home pay.”

Listen:

Daily Caller Editorial Director @VinceCoglianese asked @JDVance on @WMALDC today what his strategy for last week's debate was.

VANCE: "Really to introduce to the American people why I think Kamala Harris has been so ineffective." pic.twitter.com/CVMHj1E5Ne
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 7, 2024

Beatdown:

WATCH: JD Vance Absolutely Cooks Tim Walz, Then Kamala's Running Mate Completely Implodes

HOT TAKES: Democrats, Media Seethe As Republicans Cheer After Vance Dominates Vice Presidential Debate

Body Language Expert: JD Vance Was 'Captain of the Ship'

Vance continued, saying that he wanted to make the most effective use of his time:

“So I kind of just ignored Tim Walz to the extent that he and I — obviously I had to respond to some of the points that he made. There are some issues out there where, actually, I think he is more reasonable than she is,” Vance said. “So I tried to use that to highlight just how radical she was and that was the strategy that I went into it with. I get 90 minutes to talk to about 50 million of my fellow Americans, why don’t I talk to them about why I think Donald Trump would be a good president and Kamala Harris would be a bad one? That’s the most effective way to use that time.”

It’s a strategy that seems to have produced some pretty good results:

BREAKING: 93.51% of polls on social media (X/FB) show Vance won the VP debate.

500 polls with over 1M votes from both X & FB were used to calculate the results.

This study was conducted immediately within 30 min. of the debate ending with voters who most likely watched debate. pic.twitter.com/iG9XoPxjSf
— Saving America (@SavingAmerica4U) October 2, 2024