Does the VP Vance-Walz debate matter? The answer to this question does

Usually, a vice presidential debate isn’t something you’d set your alarm for.

But since when was anything typical about the 2024 election?

It was crazy enough before President Joe Biden crashed and burned in June’s presidential debate with Donald Trump and later dropped out of the race, endorsing Kamala Harris. I mean, when Trump is part of the equation, the crazy is baked, by his own design. So far, when it comes to debates, we are two for two in madness and great TV. (The current policy leaves something to be desired.)

So it’s no wonder that the debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz, the two vice presidential candidates, is must-see TV. And not just because it’s such a clash of style, personality and politics. This time it’s more.

When is the VP debate?

The vice presidential debate is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. Arizona time, Tuesday, October 1, on CBS, Paramount+ and will be available to other networks for live coverage. And they will. Because that’s going to be crazy.

Here’s why: Any story that insists, “These are moderator questions NECESSITY ask’ is almost always worthless. If you’re so great why don’t you moderate? But in this case, it’s something the moderators, “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, have to get an answer to.

It’s directed at Vance: Why, when you knew Haitian immigrants weren’t eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, did you say they were anyway? And why do you continue to push a racist lie that has been incredibly damaging to the community? (Vance has said several times that Springfield residents say that immigrants eat animals; there is no evidence of this.)

Vance told CNN that he would “create stories to get the American media to really pay attention to the suffering of the American people” if necessary. By doing so, he increases their suffering.

It must be asked of him: Are you still lying? How are we supposed to know that what you say is true?

This is how the debate should begin. Vance’s answer will color every answer he gives after that. The Trump campaign, and Vance in particular, must answer and be held accountable for their dangerous and racist lies of political expediency. Want to watch Walz for his record characterization in the Army National Guard? Good, fair play. go

But no one called in bomb threats for it. False equivalence won’t cut it here.

Does the Vice Presidential Debate Matter? Yes, sort of

Are all these as important as the policy questions? Yes. In this rare case, it is. This does not mean that policy questions should not be asked. It should. After asking this. It would not be a case of moderators framing the debate. Vance framed this himself and has to answer for it eventually.

And about those policy questions. … I don’t know everything there is to know about government, but since Mrs. Hatcher’s 12th grade civics class, I don’t recall anyone describing the role of vice president as anything other than lying in wait in case emergency. Certainly, they should be qualified in case they become president someday. Beyond that and the occasional tie-breaking vote as president of the US Senate, there’s not much.

Which is why I’m surprised the Harris camp hasn’t blasted Trump more, blaming her for everything that’s ever gone wrong in the last four years. CNN’s Anderson Cooper is the only journalist I’ve seen ask Republicans if that means Mike Pence is responsible for all the accomplishments of Trump’s presidency.

The point is that this debate, like most other contemporary debates, is as much a TV event as it is a political one. The first two presidential debates this year were unusually eventful, not because they were great debates — they absolutely weren’t — but because of the strange things that happened in them. In the first, Biden struggled to string his sentences together, especially at the beginning. In the second, Harris calmly got Trump to predictably sabotage himself. “They eat dogs!” “They eat the cats!”

No, I’m not. And on Tuesday, the moderators should try to get Vance to say this.

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