The only seriously controversial question of the debate night came right at the end. Yes, the questions were substantive policy questions and that fact led itself to a much more congenial and civil debate than anybody would have thought possible. So it was non controversial to have listened to J.D. Vance sanewash Donald Trump as somebody who advanced Obamacare, when just the opposite is true and we already knew that he was a liar on abortion. That merely got corroborated. There was an expectation that Tim Walz would eat his lunch when Trump’s truly horrific actions were addressed, and that came at the end. Vance was asked about certification of the election and his weak tea response was about peoples’ “right to debate.” Oh, please.

“I think we’re focused on the future.” We are focusing on the future, J.D. We’re focusing on a future where God forbid you might be vice president and refuse to do your constitutional duty. For America to have a future, we need to focus on the riot that Trump started on January 6 and whether it’s time to entirely smash the Overton Window to smithereens by normalizing it. Because that is clearly what Vance and the GOP want to do.

Those three sentences are it: “Did Trump lose the 2020 election? I’m focused on the future. That’s a damning non-answer.” By the way, this is the statement that the Lincoln Project issued right after the debate. They entitled it, “Tonight Is Clear: J.D. Vance Is All In With America’s Hitler”

“Tonight, JD Vance tried to gaslight the American people. He wants everyone to forget he joined the man he called, ‘America’s Hitler’ in pushing Project 2025’s dehumanizing racist and misogynist agenda. America’s Hitler and his Himmler willing-to-be want to rip away God given rights, punish their enemies, and want to make political violence a function of the US political system.”

Actually, I think Vance is closer to Albert Speer than Heinrich Himmler, but why split hairs?

You are going to hear from many commentators for many days about this debate. It was unexpectedly civil and the two men found common ground. Normally, I would find that encouraging. But J.D. Vance is a snake and you know what happens when you take a snake in.

Let’s see what Vance does in the next 35 days. This was not the baptism of fire that was expected, it was more like a crucible of cocoa. And Project 2025 was not mentioned and that is an egregious oversight. But one that makes complete sense because the mainstream media is hellbent to normalize Trump.

What we all know is that January 6 was more than Trump saying “there were some problems” with the 2020 election, to quote Vance. January 6 was Trump trying to overthrow the government.

But it makes perfect sense what Vance is doing. He wants the top job. He wants 78-year-old, or 79, or 80, or 81-year-old Trump to croak. And then the top job is his. That’s the game plan.

And right now, make no mistake, Republicans are glowing in the dark, they’re so happy. J.D. sounded reasonable. The press didn’t ask about Project 2025. The coup d’etat that would result in theocratic rule is still on the back burner and democracy lies in the balance this November 5. Make no mistake. The Republicans are only too happy to dispense with democracy and usher in fascism.

 

Help keep the site running, consider supporting.

3 COMMENTS

  1. The GQP should be thrilled – Vance got to hammer Vice President Harris in every single answer. All I heard, by listening to the snippets provided, was Vp Harris is the cause of all the problems in the country with little pushback. Sad that there was no fact checking by the moderators and almost no pushback by Mr Walz.

    5

  2. I could only listen for a few minutes. This is what I got, Vance trying to “appear Normal” and Walz being a Diplomat. Corp’ RW Media, always FAVORS their Shills.

  3. I didn’t navigate over to the CBS website where the “real time” fact checking was to be posted, so I can’t comment. PZ is my first stop on my daily web visit, so I’m not aware of any post-debate fact checking on other forums or news sources.

    IMHO, one or more of the outlets simulcasting the debate would have done viewers a real service by running a crawl line with real time fact checks, and CBS could have made whatever fact checking they performed available to the simulcasting outlets.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

The maximum upload file size: 128 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here