I'm legitimately looking forward to the upcoming debate between Sen. J.D. Vance and Gov. Tampon Tim Walz. As someone who was admittedly underwhelmed by Trump's selection of Vance as his running mate, I can't deny that Vance knows how to handle himself on the stump and with the media. He's polished and can think fast on his feet. But, I'm not about to underestimate Tim Walz either.
According to a report from CNN, Walz is a bit worried about the upcoming vice presidential debate. "Tim Walz is telling people he’s just as nervous about facing JD Vance as he was the Sunday afternoon in August when he warned Kamala Harris in his running mate interview that he was a bad debater," reports CNN. "Maybe more nervous, according to multiple people who’ve spoken to him."
Talking to the aides who have coalesced around him in Minnesota and other supporters, Walz constantly comes back to how worried he is about letting Harris down, according to close to a dozen top campaign staffers and others who have been in touch with the governor and his team. He doesn’t want Donald Trump to win. He doesn’t want Harris to think she made the wrong choice.
According to the story, this isn't about lowering expectations either.
“He’s a strong person,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told CNN. “He’s just not a lawyer-debater type. It’s not like he was dreaming of debates when he was in first grade.”
CNN claims that while Walz is "confident in Harris’ vision," he "fears he won’t make his case as well as he needs to, according to people who have been speaking with him."
“How’s debate prep going?” one person at an exclusive high-dollar fundraiser asked Walz as he stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in megadonor Alex Soros’ penthouse living room in Manhattan on Monday.
“As teachers, we are trained to answer the question, and we train our students to answer the questions,” the person recalled Walz saying. “That’s not how this goes.”
It's a cute story, and you shouldn't believe a word of it. This is just part of the usual lowering of expectations game we see before pretty much every debate. We saw the same with Kamala Harris before her showdown with Trump. Her campaign was reportedly desperate to change the rules about open mics. According to reports, the campaign's entire debate strategy hinged on there being live microphones, and when they lost that battle, there was panic. It was foolish to believe those reports, or to convince ourselves that Kamala, who was going nonstop for days with endless mock debates, was going to be over-prepared and it would hurt her. Perhaps had Trump done even a modest amount of debate prep, her over-rehearsed and over-prepared performance would have shone more, but he didn't.
From what I've seen of Walz, I suspect his debate strategy will be similar to Joe Biden's 2012 debate performance with Rep. Paul Ryan. For those who don't remember, that debate came after Barack Obama choked in his first debate with Mitt Romney. I still remember how Biden frequently interrupted Ryan and used body language—smirks, laughter, and dismissive gestures—that suggested he found Ryan’s arguments unconvincing or even laughable. Sure, it was rude and unbecoming, but he made it difficult for Ryan to get a word in edgewise. The Walz-Vance debate will have live mics, and I think Walz will be just as rude as Biden in the hopes of throwing off Vance.
I'm not saying it will work, but that's what I suspect will happen. If Walz was really nervous about the debate they'd pull out and make some excuse that unless Trump debates Kamala again, they won't participate in the vice-presidential debate. Remember, Kamala Harris desperately wants a second debate with Trump—even though she bailed on the first debate that Fox News offered to host.
Typically, vice presidential debates don't impact the presidential race at all, and I doubt this one will have a huge impact, but it could carry more weight than past vice presidential debates given the lack of follow-up presidential debates.
Trust me, Tim Walz will be ready for this debate.
