Who won the vice presidential debate?

The two vice-presidential candidates faced each other Tuesday evening in a tense, technical, but respectful atmosphere. If Kamala Harris’ right arm appeared nervous and unsure of himself, Donald Trump’s attack dog wanted to improve his catastrophic image among American voters. Decryption of the debate.

A televised debate between two vice-presidential candidates serves absolutely no purpose. And that’s precisely why they’re so exciting to watch. Everything has less impact than a fight between two potential tenants of the Oval Office and only one task flashes in the minds of the challengers: above all, not to disappoint the boss. In other words, JV Vance and Tim Walz only had two real viewers on Tuesday night, namely Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Enough to entertain Americans for 90 minutes? Absolutely.

And let’s break the suspense from the start: the Republican billionaire has reason to be proud of the entry on the scene of his attack dog. While his opponent rushed into the files and attacks against Trump from his first speech, JD Vance unpacked his performance with a certain elegance in the verb, thanking the viewers “caring enough about this country” to have “turned on their station”. Before sharing his chance to be where he is this Tuesday evening, aware that his biography is an asset:

An apparent and deliberate restraint, which gave him the advantage from the first minutes and will allow him to soften certain unpopular positions of his own party, in particular by wanting to “allow mothers to have babies more easily”. He knows it, this debate will be the only opportunity for voters to listen to him speak at length.

Opposite him, Tim Watz seized by stage fright and quite uncomfortable during the first half hour, searching for his words and scribbling his notes instead of making a first positive impression in the minds of the public. On the one hand, a double-edged assurance, on the other, insecurity and great nervousness.

This impression will haunt this debate which, by far, was the most technical and intense of the presidential duels of the year. In just a quarter of an hour, the two candidates had to position themselves on burning issues: the recent Iranian strikes on Israel, the powerful Hurricane Helene which killed around a hundred people, climate change and energy policy.

Enough to test the preparation, skills, nerves and concentration of the Republican senator and the Democratic governor.

The decor

Fuchsia tie on one side, blue tie on the other. Two American flags on the reverse. Facing them, two female journalists matching the candidates’ colors, Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell. The rules? Two minutes to respond, one minute to reply.

Detail that will be important: the CBS channel decided not to fact-check the responses of the running mates live, letting them do it themselves. Result, immense chaos when Margaret Brennan wanted to clarify that the majority of Haitian migrants from the small town of Springfield, whom JD Vance accuses of eating domestic animals, benefit from “legal status”. The microphone of the running mate, clearly angry, will be cut off after this reply:

The debate

Copious, the evening’s appetizer will nevertheless leave American citizens wanting more: if they were in the White House, would they support Israel’s response to the recent Iranian strikes? No one will really answer this question. For JD Vance, Donald Trump “makes the world safer” by bringing peace by force.

The governor of Minnesota will show hesitation, sometimes giving the impression of confusing Israel and Iran on several occasions. Before attacking Trump’s lightness, but also these former security advisers when he was in charge.

The emotion of the hurricane

It’s not easy to debate a current topic which has not yet revealed all its horrors. The two adversaries therefore played the emotion card when it came to causing Hurricane Helene, which devastated several southern states and caused more than a hundred victims.

And Vance won this round, unsurprisingly betting on the tragic story of the two grandparents on the roof of their house in North Carolina, who will be swept away by the waters, alongside their 7-year-old grandson. years, a few minutes after a last photo that brought tears to the eyes of Americans. More professional, Tim Walz relied on his job as governor to silence political bickering while he counted the dead.

Kindness and apologies

Generally speaking, the two adversaries have never attacked each other head-on, focusing on the records of their respective bosses. This will particularly be the case with regard to the economy. Less on immigration, during which Walz and Vance seem to want to feel compassion for each other: “I believe that Senator Vance wants to solve the problem at the borders, but by working alongside Donald Trump, no solution is possible,” said Tim Walz. Vance will address the same barb to him:

While the governor of Minnesota displayed a bit more confidence than at the start of the match, he had to revisit portions of his biography that he recently embellished. And in particular on his “presence” in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square demonstrations in the spring of 1989, while he was in the United States.

JD Vance also made amends, once again recalling the time when he called his boss, Donald Trump, “America’s Adolf Hitler.” “Sometimes, of course, I disagree with the president, but I’ve also been very open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump. I was wrong, but it’s also the media’s fault.”

Conclusion

Despite a less feverish end to the race, Tim Walz gave the impression of not wanting to be there. We knew he was uncomfortable in square and official formats, Tuesday evening served as confirmation. The Minnesota governor’s best attack came in the final minutes of the exchanges, when he asked his enemy if he intended to accept the result of the November 5 election. Without really answering the question, the latter was content to confirm the tendency of Trumpists to want to put a few spokes in the democratic wheels.

A JD Vance who took everyone by surprise, by staying in his line, sometimes even daring to congratulate his opponent, the better to destabilize him. Mission accomplished for the bestselling author. All while trying – unsuccessfully – to rewrite the story of the Palm Beach billionaire with a glitter pen, with its share of alternative truths. While the Republican senator is one of the least popular vice-presidential candidates in American history, he tried for 90 minutes to prove that he was something other than a man “who hates women” and which “validates racist theses”. Effective? Time (and Donald Trump’s opinion) will tell.

Tuesday evening’s debate finally revealed two courteous men, serving the boss, whose fight, although very successful, has little chance of disrupting the voting intentions and the campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

For more reports made in US