Mother Jones; Matt Rourke/AP; Michele Crowe/CBS/Getty
JD Vance did a decent job for the first 94 minutes of Tuesday night’s debate.
“Vance’s Dominant Debate Performance Shows Why He’s Trump’s Running Mate,” a post from the Vance-pilled New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat declared, barely halfway through the CBS-hosted event.
Then Tim Walz asked the Ohio senator if Trump lost the 2020 election.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance said in a response in which he did not acknowledge that Joe Biden won. “Obviously, Donald Trump and I think that there were problems in 2020.”
The Minnesota governor, whose clipped and at times rambling answers made for a disappointing performance for much of the night, didn’t miss on this one.
“That is a damning nonanswer,” Walz said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to carry out his ceremonial duty to certify Biden’s election victory is “why Mike Pence isn’t on this stage,” Walz continued. “What I’m concerned about is, where is the firewall with Donald Trump? Where is the firewall if he knows he could do anything, including taking an election, and his vice president is not going to stand up to it? That’s what we are asking you, America.”
Vance, a guy with historically low likability numbers, worked hard Tuesday to present himself as more relatable han the dude who sneers at childless cat-ladies and pushes racist rumors about legal immigrants in his own state.
But Vance’s January 6 dodge undid much of that work—and revealed a lot about the GOP VP nominee. Vance also called it “really rich for Democratic leaders to say that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy when he peacefully gave over power on January the 20th.” That statement suggests that it’s unreasonable to worry about the threat Trump poses to democracy because his coup attempt failed.
Vance is not Trump’s running mate because he’s a best-selling author, because he’s smart, or because he can give answers that thrill Ross Douthat. He’s there because he won’t say that Trump lied, and continues to lie, about the 2020 election.
And if Trump turns out not to have been totally joking when he called to “terminate” the Constitution and vowed to be a dictator for a day, if he pursues his stated plans to ignore the Constitution and rule of law to deport millions of immigrants and use the Justice Department to prosecute political enemies, JD Vance is not going to be the one to stop him. That’s the top takeaway from Tuesday’s debate.
