What do we really want to know about the U.S. aid problem? Neither Walz nor Vance have shown us how to “do no harm”
Both candidates were not asked about the issue of U.S. aid for Ukraine, as they have fundamentally different views.
Walz didn’t have to account for his military record timeline or his misstatements on carrying weapons of war. Vance wasn’t asked about his “stolen valor” accusations about Walz’s service, either.
The presidential campaign isn’t likely to move the needle in the debate because no one votes for the vice-presidential pick. After all, the most important rule of being a running mate is, “First, do no harm.”
People don’t agree on shared facts, one of America’s biggest issues People have their own ideologies and are finding others who affirm what they believe — whether Trump or posts on social media — rather than having their minds changed by contrary evidence.
Trump has played to cultural grievances, telling people that they don’t need to trust traditional knowledge because there are simpler solutions to complex problems. Voters should trust Trump over other people according to the man who embraces this thinking. Giving the example of conventional wisdom about the global economy, Vance said, “For the first time in a generation, Donald Trump had the wisdom and the courage to say to that bipartisan consensus, ‘We’re not doing it anymore.’ It’s an acronym.
The right more broadly in the last 10 years of American politics moved away from believing experts. Democrats have had their own issues with being perceived as elitist and talking down to working-class voters. Republicans have exploited that as well.
Vance, Honest and Accurate: Why Did Vance Go to China During the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests?
The guy got off to a shaky start. He was asked about foreign policy at the beginning, but it wasn’t his strong suit. He had some awkward pauses and misspoke (saying he’s “friends with school shooters,” for example, when he appeared to mean families of victims of school shootings).
Instead of directly saying he misspoke, Walz gave a meandering answer that included him saying, “I will talk a lot,” which could imply you can’t believe everything he says.
In addition to foreign policy, he wasn’t very strong in his response to the questions about his time in China. Walz has said he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests, which took place in the spring of 1989. Minnesota Public Radio and others have reported that he didn’t actually travel there until later in the summer.
One of the nominees for vice president showed up Tuesday night, but he was mostly respectful of his opponent. The booing that takes place on the campaign trail at his rallies when a reporter asks a question is not as common as he would have you believe.
The health care, child care, and Jan. 6 positions were all laundered by Vance. His strongest moment was when he asked if Harris has brought down prices already as a part of the administration and implemented things she promised to do if elected president because Republicans have an advantage on the cost of living.
The first and only vice-presidential debate will feature arguments on why one of the candidates did better than the other at certain times.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and the U.S. President’s Visit to N.C. after Hurricane Helene
Jimmy Carter had a birthday yesterday which was his 100th. President Biden sent a birthday wish for the 39th president, who has been in home Hospice care since February 23rd. His birthplace of Plains, Ga., held a parade in his honor. Carter is the longest-living person to have served as a U.S. president.
The princess that the game is named after has been missing in action since the beginning of the series. Instead, the green hat-clad Link plays the protagonist, saving the world from evil and rescuing Princess Zelda. She grabbed her wand to save a trapped Link in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
The president will visit North Carolina today to assess the recovery. The death toll increases on a daily basis in the flood-hit southeast. Tens of thousands still lack electricity, water, cell service or all three.
Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate against Iran for the missile attack on Israel last night. millions of people were forced into bomb shelters because of the missiles that Iran launched. This comes after Israel’s recent killing of Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The WIRED Politics Lab: VP Debate Night: Vance Sanitized Trumpism, Walz Called Himself a Knucklehead
Good morning. The newsletter is called Up First. If you’re a fan of the Up First podcast, you can also subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox.
Tim Marchman: My overwhelming impression of it was JD Vance doing a great job of appearing very reasonable. If I didn’t know anything but what I saw in this debate, I would think he has very different policy positions than he actually has. I’m not sure what he thinks about climate change, if Israel should attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, whether he thinks Donald Trump lost the election, or whether he would have certified the 2020 election. It wasn’t so much a moment, it was the kind of river of him being evasive in what I thought was a pretty successful fashion.
Leah Feiger: This is WIRED Politics Lab, a show about how tech is changing politics. I am the senior politics editor at WIRED. Vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance faced off last night in their first and only debate. Some of what the candidates talked about was pretty predictable. We hit several squares of our custom WIRED VP Debate Bingo: reproductive rights, climate change, border security, and January 6th. While JD Vance managed to cogently sanitize Trumpism, Tim Walz faltered. Will the pitch to independents and swing state voters work? What version of the debate is the algorithm going to serve you today, and does any of this really matter? Tim Marchman is the director of science, politics, and security at WIRED. Hey, Tim.
You can open the app on your device if you like, or just tap the link. You can use the Overcast app or the Pocket Casts app to find WIRED Politics Lab. We are also on the service.
If you want to get every episode of the show for free, you’ve got to subscribe to the audio player on this page.
A New Person: #LeahFeiger, Kelly Makena, Tim Marchman – Subscribe to WIRED Politics Lab
There is a new person named #LeahFeiger. Kelly Makena is a person. There is a person named Tim Marchman. Write to us at [email protected]. Be sure to subscribe to the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter here.
