Their big debate was expected to be a test of credibility at the highest political level. With 35 days to go before the American presidential election, JD Vance and Tim Walz, the running mates of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris respectively, emerged from the shadows on a CBS set on Tuesday, October 1. In a dense debate focused on the everyday lives of Americans, the Ohio senator and Minnesota governor contrasted in style, while trying to appear affable and reassuring. Neither candidate stood out. Each returned satisfied to his own, in an ultra-polarized political field where there are few left to persuade.
Vance's cleverness was so calculated and apparent that it deprived him of naturalness and genuine presence. As for Walz, he got off to a rocky start. Like a student trapped in his revision sheets, he seemed at times obsessed with his thematic arguments, rather than displaying the spontaneity for which he is renowned.
The exchanges were marked by an effort at civility and some surprising points of agreement, such as on the damage caused by offshoring. They ended with a warm handshake, in the presence of both men's wives. Was it just a polite, old-fashioned debate? There's nothing banal about Trump's third campaign: He's been charged because of an attempted coup d'état, convicted of falsifying accounting documents, and faces prison time. None of this was mentioned on Tuesday evening.
There was no live audience in the studio with the two debaters, who were not muted when the other was speaking. The discussion began with a rare focus on foreign policy. The news of the day justified it, with the Iranian strikes against Israel. "Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world," claimed Vance. But the two men didn't dwell on it. Ukraine was not mentioned, nor was NATO, nor China, except for one point: Walz's repeated statements about his trip to that country at the time of the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. The governor was blatantly clumsy. If he had been more open to speaking to the press since the Democratic convention in Chicago at the end of August, he might have been able to practice his repartee more.
Vance, on the other hand, thrives on adversity, with his even tone and rapid delivery. Trump's running mate distinguishes himself for his balance of aggression and discipline. He demonstrated this again on Tuesday, systematically referring Walz to the record of the Biden-Harris administration. The Ohio senator even feigned empathy: "I think you've got a tough job here [...] You've got to pretend that Donald Trump didn't deliver lower inflation, which of course he did. And then you simultaneously got to defend Kamala Harris's atrocious economic record."
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