Their grand oral was expected as a test of credibility at the highest political level. Thirty-five days before the American presidential election, JD Vance and Tim Walz, the running mates of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, emerged from the shadows on a CBS channel set, Tuesday 1er october. During a dense debate, focused on the daily lives of Americans, the senator from Ohio and the governor of Minnesota presented a contrast in style, while trying to appear affable and reassuring. No one broke away. Everyone returned, satisfied, to their loved ones, in an ultra-polarized political field, where there are not many people left to persuade.
JD Vance had such calculated skill and such apparent cunning that they deprived him of naturalness and human density. Tim Walz got off to a slow start. Like a student trapped in his revision sheets, wide-eyed, he sometimes seemed obsessed with his thematic arguments, instead of demonstrating the spontaneity that made his reputation.
The discussions were marked by an effort at civility and some surprising convergences, such as on the damage of relocations. They concluded with a warm handshake, in the presence of the wives of both men. Just a polite, old-fashioned debate? There is nothing banal, however, in the third campaign of Donald Trump, indicted for attempted coup d’état, criminally convicted for falsification of accounting documents, threatened with imprisonment. A judicial dimension never mentioned Tuesday evening.
No audience had taken a seat in front of the two speakers, whose microphone was not muted when the other spoke. The debate began with foreign policy, a rare occurrence. The news of the day justified it, with the Iranian strikes against Israel. “In reality, Donald Trump has ensured stability in the world “, explained JD Vance. But the two men hardly dwelt. Ukraine was not mentioned, nor was NATO, nor was China, except on one point: Tim Walz’s repeated approximations about his trip to this country, at the time of the repression, in Tiananmen Square. , in 1989. The governor was blatantly clumsy. If he had avoided the press less since the Democratic convention in Chicago at the end of August, he might have worked on his repartee.
Walz fired on Biden’s record
JD Vance thrives on adversity, with an even tone and rapid delivery. Donald Trump’s running mate is distinguished by a mixture of aggression and discipline. He demonstrated it once again on Tuesday, by systematically referring Tim Walz to the results of the Biden-Harris administration. The Ohio senator even feigned empathy: “Your job is difficult. (…). You have to pretend that Donald Trump didn’t get lower inflation, which he obviously did, and then you have to at the same time defend Kamala Harris for her atrocious economic record, which made gasoline, food and overpriced housing for American citizens. »
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