The VP Debate: Unpacked

0:00:06 Will the VP debate move the needle in what’s shaping up to be a neck-and-neck election?
0:00:09 You never know in advance what will be the thing that matters and the thing that doesn’t
0:00:10 matter.
0:00:18 But Donald Trump will be almost 80, and J.D. Vance will be one cheeseburger away from
0:00:20 the presidency should they win.
0:00:25 I’m Preet Bharara, and this week, The Atlantic magazine’s David Frum joins me on my podcast
0:00:29 Stay Tuned with Preet to break down what happened at the debate.
0:00:31 The episode is out now.
0:00:35 Search and follow Stay Tuned with Preet wherever you get your podcasts.
0:00:36 Hi, everyone.
0:00:43 I’m Brené Brown, and I’d love to tell you about a new series that’s launching on Unlocking
0:00:44 Us.
0:00:47 I’m calling it the On My Heart and Mind Podcast series.
0:00:50 It’s going to include conversations with some of my favorite writers on topics ranging
0:00:55 from revolutionary love and gun ownership to menopause and finding joy and grief.
0:00:58 The first episode is available now, and I can’t wait for you to hear it.
0:01:01 All new episodes will drop on Wednesdays, and you can get them as soon as they’re out
0:01:08 by following Unlocking Us on Apple or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
0:01:09 Welcome to Raging Moderates.
0:01:11 I’m Scott Galloway.
0:01:13 And I’m Jessica Tarliff.
0:01:18 Jess, so I’m trying to think, something happened, what’s happened recently?
0:01:19 What’s gone on here?
0:01:20 Can’t put my finger on it.
0:01:21 Can’t put your finger on it?
0:01:22 Let’s remind everybody.
0:01:24 Let’s play our greatest hits.
0:01:26 Roll tape.
0:01:31 One or just to follow up on that, the question was can you explain the discrepancy?
0:01:35 All I said on this was, is I got there that summer and misspoke on this.
0:01:39 So I will just, that’s what I’ve said.
0:01:45 So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protest went in.
0:01:50 And from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance.
0:01:52 He is still saying he didn’t lose the election.
0:01:55 I would just ask that, did he lose the 2020 election?
0:01:57 Tim, I’m focused on the future.
0:02:03 Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 COVID situation?
0:02:07 That is a damning, that is a damning non-answer.
0:02:09 It’s a damning non-answer for you to not talk about censorship.
0:02:13 Obviously, Donald Trump and I think that there were problems in 2020.
0:02:14 We’ve talked about it.
0:02:15 I’m happy to talk about it further.
0:02:19 But you guys attack us for not believing in democracy.
0:02:24 The most sacred right under the United States democracy is the First Amendment.
0:02:25 Thank you, Governor.
0:02:30 And just to clarify, for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio does have a large number of Haitian
0:02:35 migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status.
0:02:36 Thank you.
0:02:38 Senator, we have so much to get to.
0:02:44 I think it’s important because the rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check.
0:02:47 And since you’re fact checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going
0:02:48 on.
0:02:51 Those laws have been on the book since 1990.
0:02:52 Thank you, gentlemen.
0:02:56 The CBB One app has not been on the books.
0:03:02 Gentlemen, the audience can’t hear you because your mics are cut.
0:03:04 We have so much we want to get to.
0:03:06 Thank you for explaining the legal process.
0:03:07 Wow.
0:03:10 Jess, your thoughts?
0:03:17 I was on such an extreme emotional roller coaster last night watching this debate.
0:03:24 I was at Fox watching it with Kellyanne Conway, which is an incredible way to watch a debate
0:03:29 because she understands politics at a level far beyond me.
0:03:34 She’s obviously very close to the Trump side of things, but also can be very objective
0:03:35 about things.
0:03:38 So I always kind of love to be able to bounce things off of her.
0:03:45 But for the first few minutes, when it seemed like Tim Walls was going to lose his cookies
0:03:49 live on stage, I thought it was going to be catastrophic.
0:03:53 I just switched to praying, like, these things don’t matter, right?
0:03:54 We’re going to be fine.
0:03:57 This is about Trump and this is about Kamala.
0:04:02 And I was that way for about 10 minutes or so and was getting text messages from people
0:04:07 who even work on the campaign, very, very, very concerned.
0:04:12 And then I kind of leveled out to this was fine.
0:04:16 And that’s where I ended and it’s where most people seem to end and we can go into the
0:04:18 snap holes of it.
0:04:23 But the roller coaster of emotions, the feeling that JD Vance was everything that we thought
0:04:30 he would be, that he would present really well, that there wouldn’t be a misused word.
0:04:36 There was a lot of lying, but it all sounded excellent, which was the expectation.
0:04:41 And one thing and other people have commented on this and huge majorities of people who watched
0:04:43 the debate did as well.
0:04:49 It was so nice to have a substantive exchange of ideas that wasn’t petty.
0:04:51 There wasn’t name calling to it.
0:04:57 They were pretty polite, civil to each other when they agreed, they said, I’m an agreement
0:04:58 this way.
0:05:00 I guess it’s the epitome of Minnesota nice.
0:05:04 Since we know what walls thinks of Vance and we know what Vance thinks of walls.
0:05:07 But I think that that elevated this debate.
0:05:10 And there were a lot of people saying online, like, this is how the presidential debate
0:05:12 should have been.
0:05:16 It would have been, we would have been much better served if it had this kind of tone.
0:05:21 Yeah, I think that’s a good summary.
0:05:26 I thought to myself, I thought coming out of it, I’ve thought all along people underestimated
0:05:27 Vance.
0:05:30 I think she’s very, very intelligent.
0:05:35 And this darkness, this weirdness has the media’s run with it.
0:05:39 And that is just blatant, I don’t know how to put it any other way, misogyny.
0:05:43 There’s just a weirdness there to the guy and the media’s run with that and positioned
0:05:45 him as weird.
0:05:47 He is very intelligent.
0:05:52 He went to Yale Law School, which is three years in debate training, basically.
0:05:56 And I think on a balanced scorecard, you’d have to give the debate to him.
0:06:04 I don’t think, I mean, his ability to sort of bob and weave, you know, did Donald Trump
0:06:07 win the election or did Joe Biden win the election, that straight up question.
0:06:14 He managed to go to, well, Hillary refused to acknowledge the election, at least initially.
0:06:16 And even worse, you guys are engaging in censorship.
0:06:18 Now, that’s all bullshit.
0:06:21 Hillary did show up to the inauguration.
0:06:23 She did say, she did concede.
0:06:29 The notion that conservatives are somehow being censored is just so ridiculous.
0:06:35 It’s like, a decent tell is if someone screams censorship, it means they will not shut the
0:06:39 fuck up and that they’re everywhere, everywhere.
0:06:43 If you look at the people who are the biggest promoters of this myth around censorship in
0:06:51 America, they generally have one of the 10 most downloaded podcasts in the world.
0:06:59 So I kind of had a gag reflex around the lies, but he told them well.
0:07:01 He was very agile.
0:07:06 When I’m on boards, one of the first things I recognize, the key attributes of a successful
0:07:12 CEO of a big company is that they have to be a bit sociopathic.
0:07:16 And that is, I’ve been in all hands, or I’ve gone to in all hands as a director where the
0:07:20 CEO stands up and talks about the great future of the company, knowing that at 6 a.m. the
0:07:25 next morning, 15% of the staff of the workforce or 3,000 people are going to have their emails
0:07:30 shut off, their phones turned off, and they’re gone.
0:07:33 They’ll get an email from HR saying please call us.
0:07:35 You are no longer working in this firm.
0:07:40 And you’d think the guy was addressing his family at Thanksgiving dinner.
0:07:42 There’s just a sociopathy there.
0:07:47 And I was thinking about to go into a situation like this with so much pressure.
0:07:51 You’re plucked out of Minnesota governorship.
0:07:53 So much is riding on this.
0:07:59 I think that any human is going to have the same reaction, at least initially, that Governor
0:08:00 Wallace had.
0:08:02 And that is, he was a little bit nervous.
0:08:08 I thought he was better as the night went on, but Vance looked calm, cool, collected.
0:08:14 He was able to do all sorts of, he was very agile on his feet, came across as incredibly
0:08:15 bright.
0:08:23 The big winner, in my view, is America because this is how our elected representatives are
0:08:25 supposed to equip themselves.
0:08:27 They’re supposed to occasionally find common ground.
0:08:33 They interrupted each other, but only occasionally they were polite.
0:08:34 They acted like men.
0:08:36 I mean, they acted like grown fucking men.
0:08:41 And I thought, well, hopefully what this does is it shows that when you put Donald Trump
0:08:45 on stage or in any environment, it’s just chaos and bullshit.
0:08:48 But I’m not sure people will do that second order thinking.
0:08:50 So in some, I think America was the winner.
0:08:54 I think in terms of the race itself, I think it was probably a nothing burger.
0:08:58 VP debates have rarely been more than just sort of media fodder.
0:09:03 On a balanced, on a scorecard, I’d probably give the win to Vance.
0:09:04 Okay.
0:09:11 So a couple of things from that, I mean, we’re largely in agreement, but on the, the win
0:09:15 for Vance, because that was my feeling too.
0:09:20 And it was kind of like the elites vibe, you know, those of us who are now sitting with
0:09:23 podcasting equipment the day after this.
0:09:27 But when they were talking to undecided voters in these focus groups or doing these snap
0:09:31 polls, that wasn’t people’s overwhelming view of it.
0:09:33 So in general, it was a bit of a wash.
0:09:36 Vance and a couple had like a two point advantage.
0:09:38 Walls did it and a couple of them.
0:09:40 Most of it, it was like, this was a tie.
0:09:43 And it did not feel like a tie to me.
0:09:48 Even walls is going back and listening to the clips of where walls really succeeded didn’t
0:09:52 even hit me that, that well when it was happening.
0:09:57 And I don’t know if that was my protective crouch that I was in through the entire thing.
0:09:59 But there was more to the story.
0:10:04 So putting aside like who won or, or who lost, you know, it wasn’t like Kamala versus Trump
0:10:11 in that sense, but the favorability numbers are staggering from the CNN snap poll.
0:10:14 Walls was plus 14, went up to plus 37.
0:10:18 And Vance improved as well, but negative 22 to negative three.
0:10:22 So it’s like, we really hated you and now we just kind of dislike you.
0:10:24 That makes a difference.
0:10:28 Walls did better on who came across as reasonable versus extreme.
0:10:32 I’m sure we’re going to talk about the abortion issue, but that was one where JD Vance, even
0:10:36 though he, he said a lot of things that I think helped the Republican cause, like actually
0:10:41 talking about supporting women and being pro family and acknowledging that Republicans
0:10:43 have been terrible on this issue.
0:10:48 But people heard him loud and clear, which is if you live in a state that essentially
0:10:51 has an abortion ban, you live in a state that has an abortion ban and that really teed
0:10:52 up walls.
0:10:56 One of my favorite lines was that the right to control your own body shouldn’t depend
0:10:58 on geography.
0:11:01 That really stuck with me.
0:11:04 So reasonable versus extreme prepared to be president.
0:11:08 He had an edge on obviously the favorability and an abortion and healthcare and Vance’s
0:11:13 lead on the economy and immigration was like a couple points.
0:11:18 And those need to be blowout issues for Trump to win.
0:11:24 Now again, Vance is not top of the ticket and that was very clear from all of this.
0:11:31 But taken together, you obviously want to succeed in every opportunity that you have.
0:11:38 And it does feel like walls was able to accomplish even becoming or being part of the ban on
0:11:40 the divine side of this.
0:11:49 So if Trump is viewed as a cancer by a lot of people, Vance did not make it easier for
0:11:53 people to go to the Trump side of things.
0:11:57 Walls increasing his favorability, coming off as moderate and also so experienced.
0:11:58 I wanted to talk to you about this.
0:12:04 I was blown away by how much he relied on his background experience.
0:12:06 I mean, he talked about what he did as a congressman.
0:12:10 He talked about what they’re doing in Minnesota as governor, all the affordable housing units
0:12:11 he built.
0:12:14 Why they are the medical corridor, I think is what it’s called.
0:12:18 Why 3M is there, why all the health insurance companies are there.
0:12:21 Why it’s good to be a Minnesotan and what he’s done to do that.
0:12:26 And if you were watching the debate and you didn’t know that JD Vance was the senator
0:12:30 from Ohio and I told you he was the senator of Alaska, you could believe it.
0:12:31 If I said, “Oh, that guy?
0:12:32 He’s from Tennessee.”
0:12:34 And he just doesn’t have the accent.
0:12:35 You could believe it.
0:12:36 He said he’s from California.
0:12:40 I mean, he’s wearing a pink tie, which I thought was so lame.
0:12:43 You want women to like you, so you’re wearing a pink tie.
0:12:45 But he had no identity.
0:12:48 I have no idea who JD Vance is from that.
0:12:51 And like it or not, I know exactly who Tim Walls is.
0:12:57 We’ll be right back.
0:13:01 So everything you’re saying I find myself agreeing with, but I do think there’s a little
0:13:04 bit of bias there.
0:13:05 Call me out.
0:13:06 Yeah.
0:13:12 I think Walls, I think Walls’ best line was, and the reason Minnesota has the best healthcare
0:13:15 rating or whatever it is in the United States is simple.
0:13:17 We trust women and we trust doctors.
0:13:20 I thought that was very powerful.
0:13:24 But Vance was able to, I mean, here’s the bottom line.
0:13:29 Vance did more while having less to work with.
0:13:33 I mean, he’s literally at this point, the circus clown behind the elephant scooping
0:13:35 up Trump’s shit.
0:13:42 He’s the one that has to take the weirdness and somehow starch it, manicure it, shape-shift
0:13:47 it into something sort of reasonable on bodily autonomy.
0:13:48 We’ve pushed it back to the state.
0:13:51 They position it as freedom somehow.
0:13:55 And that is, it’s freedom in the sense that states should be able to decide that the federal
0:14:00 government should get out of, he almost positions it as we’re the one that cares about bodily
0:14:06 autonomy because we’re giving the states the autonomy to make their own decision.
0:14:12 He framed things that I find vile as almost kind of acceptable or understandable.
0:14:14 That was not easy.
0:14:17 I think Walls has a lot to work with.
0:14:21 Walls could, I mean, the bottom line is he’s facing, they’re not really debating each other.
0:14:24 They’re debating the top of the ticket.
0:14:29 And Walls has on the other side a guy who’s an insurrectionist and has been found liable
0:14:33 of sexual abuse, which in any other language is rape.
0:14:36 Walls had more to work with.
0:14:41 Vance given what he has, the cart, you know, the hand he’s been dealt came out, I thought
0:14:42 pretty good.
0:14:47 The bottom line though is I think this is a split decision and a nothing burger as it
0:14:49 relates to the race.
0:14:52 They both, I would say they both cemented their brand.
0:14:56 I think Walls is likable, and Vance is intelligent.
0:14:59 And that’s what I kind of came away, that that is their core brand.
0:15:03 But as it relates to the race, I don’t see this having any impact.
0:15:04 What are your thoughts?
0:15:10 In a tide race, which is where we are, there were new polls out this morning from the Cook
0:15:16 Political Report, you know, we’re in a margin of error race, and I doubt that that is going
0:15:17 to change.
0:15:21 Like maybe a couple states might move in X direction, or we know that Dems would be
0:15:26 favored in the blue wall states versus the Sun Belt for Trump.
0:15:32 And maybe I’m being liberal optimistic, liberal in my political sense, not liberal in how
0:15:41 I’m viewing this, but I think every moment counts, there’s 34 days to go, there’s already
0:15:48 an add up about the January 6th answer, and you know, not being able to say that Trump
0:15:56 lost in 2020, Harris camp already has it going, where it says the past will be the future.
0:16:01 And for the Republicans that are considering voting for Harris, people who came over in
0:16:06 2020, or maybe didn’t, maybe then saw January 6th, and were like, oh my God, we got to get
0:16:07 out of here.
0:16:11 This is like a burning building when it comes to preserving democracy.
0:16:12 Those kinds of things hit.
0:16:20 So even if this is just something that adds fodder to campaigns, or the campaigning,
0:16:22 I think it does matter.
0:16:27 And Walls is now, it seems like from his schedule going to be freed a bit more, we were talking
0:16:33 about it yesterday on the first podcast of the week, that Walls was so good at doing
0:16:35 media and then was kind of hidden away.
0:16:39 And you could see from last night that he really would have benefited from doing a few
0:16:40 Sunday shows.
0:16:45 JD Vance is out there, and he will say anything to anybody, you know, that interview with
0:16:49 Dana Bash was completely humiliating, good on him, that he’s going to go and do it.
0:16:54 And I think that Walls coming out of the gate suffered for not having those kinds of
0:16:56 reps.
0:17:01 And I hope that it is just, you know, what is it, balls to the Walls spelled like his
0:17:05 last name, that he’s just everywhere now, because he does have that charm, even for
0:17:10 something that is egregious and damaging.
0:17:14 You can’t think the guy is rotten to his core.
0:17:18 And JD Vance, you can think is slick and intelligent and all these things.
0:17:22 But a lot of people clearly are deeply suspicious of the character of the man.
0:17:26 And that was not abated by what happened last night.
0:17:30 We played in the montage the question, the response about Tiananmen Square and like where
0:17:32 he was.
0:17:37 And those little embellishments, they obviously haven’t heard him in dramatic fashion, like
0:17:39 in his favorability.
0:17:44 But I was very disappointed that there wasn’t a clear good answer, because the answer is
0:17:45 what he got to eventually.
0:17:46 I misspoke.
0:17:51 I was still there during the democracy protest, you’re talking about an eight-week differential
0:17:53 decades ago.
0:17:55 It doesn’t define who I am.
0:18:00 What defines who I am is that I celebrate democracy, and I created this humanitarian
0:18:01 exchange with China, et cetera.
0:18:06 I mean, do you think that stuff matters, or it’s just I’m being irritated as someone
0:18:08 too deep in politics?
0:18:11 The low point of the debate for either of them was that moment for walls.
0:18:15 Because he just said, I got carried away, I misspoke, I screwed up.
0:18:19 I’ve been to China, and I misspoke, and I apologize if I was wrong.
0:18:21 I just think he could have ended it there.
0:18:26 Instead it was sort of like asking your eight-year-old if they spelled their coke, and it was a little
0:18:30 bit of like awkwardness and feels like he’s not being totally fourth.
0:18:34 It was just the awkward moment of the debate, and it didn’t need to be awkward.
0:18:37 I agree with you that every moment counts.
0:18:40 The question is, was this moment consequential?
0:18:41 I don’t think it is.
0:18:47 I would argue that over the next 48 hours, how either campaign responds and/or leverages
0:18:53 and seizes a moment around Haleen and Israel is going to be much more consequential.
0:18:58 I think if either camp has seen as much more powerful, strong, deft at handling, either
0:19:04 exploiting Haleen and showing up in a jacket that says FEMA and being attentive to people’s
0:19:10 needs or being seen as strong on what’s happening in the Middle East.
0:19:16 There’s always an unintended foul ball out of nowhere that might change the game or whatever
0:19:18 the term is.
0:19:19 I don’t think this was that.
0:19:23 I think at 48 hours, if not 24 hours, I don’t even think we’re going to be talking about
0:19:24 this, Jess.
0:19:25 I just don’t.
0:19:27 It was a split decision.
0:19:28 Some people would go for walls.
0:19:32 I like what Jim Barksdale did, the former CEO of Netscape and AT&T said, and that is
0:19:36 if we’re going with opinions, let’s go with mine, otherwise let’s look at the data.
0:19:41 You brought some data, and it does look as if walls did better than I thought.
0:19:46 Having said that, I think we’re going to be talking about, I think this is going to shit
0:19:48 through a goose in the media cycle.
0:19:52 I think we’re going to be talking about some pretty consequential things that happen here.
0:19:56 I think either Israel or Haleen are going to have much more impact on this race and
0:19:57 what happened last night.
0:20:01 I was disappointed actually in the conversation around those two central issues.
0:20:03 The first question out of the gate.
0:20:05 Ukraine never came up.
0:20:07 Ukraine never came up.
0:20:13 An adjacent point going in vans for his isolationist stance, vans voted against Israel aid and
0:20:14 Ukraine aid.
0:20:17 That’s a layup for people.
0:20:22 People support helping our democratic partners and allies, especially when there’s an authority
0:20:25 in breathing down their necks.
0:20:27 I thought that was a missed opportunity.
0:20:29 We knew it was coming.
0:20:36 First question, and JD DeVance, I think has a very bad view on this and didn’t get held
0:20:40 to account on it, and walls went a little meandering about it.
0:20:45 He got out the right words about standing with Israel, but I thought he could have done
0:20:49 much better on that as well, because it has turned out to be more of a strong suit for
0:20:56 Kamala Harris than people expected, starting with the DNC speech and then moving on to
0:20:57 now.
0:21:04 JD Vance in his plus column, and this might be why you felt that he had the edge and that
0:21:10 I was sweating so bad about this, but he nailed all the lines Trump was supposed to nail.
0:21:14 You’ve had three and a half years to be able to fix this.
0:21:18 Don’t tell me what you’re going to do when you are essentially the incumbent, and we
0:21:22 know Vice President doesn’t have much power, but that is something that resonates with
0:21:23 people.
0:21:25 I thought that he nailed that.
0:21:26 Yeah.
0:21:32 Also, just a quick shout out to the raging moderators, Margaret Brandon and Norah Donald.
0:21:33 I thought they did a great job.
0:21:36 I get the sense that two of us should have brunch with them.
0:21:40 I think they’d love to have brunch with one of us, and it’s not the tall bald guy in
0:21:45 the UK right now, but I know Margaret a little bit because I’ve been on Face the Nation
0:21:46 a few times.
0:21:47 I don’t know if you’ve heard that.
0:21:48 No, I haven’t.
0:21:49 No, I haven’t.
0:21:50 I haven’t heard of it.
0:21:51 Girl can dream.
0:21:54 Long-winded way of saying, I thought the moderators are great.
0:21:58 I thought the whole thing was well done, made me feel good.
0:22:05 I really hope that all people up and down the ballot take a note from a patroness playbook
0:22:11 on this is how debates and candidates are supposed to handle themselves, and I really
0:22:16 do think that Margaret Brandon and Norah Donald were the clear winners.
0:22:23 I mean, this also might just be a lady thing that I was feeling at this level, but I loved
0:22:26 seeing two badass women doing it.
0:22:28 They looked perfect.
0:22:30 They were unflappable.
0:22:32 They were ready for everything.
0:22:36 I did not find the fact-checking to actually be fact-checking.
0:22:38 It was just like, and a note to our audience.
0:22:41 These people are here illegally, or a note to our audience.
0:22:42 Climate change is real.
0:22:43 That is fact-checking.
0:22:44 Come on.
0:22:47 They’re like interrupting someone and saying, don’t you tell that lie?
0:22:49 What are they supposed to do?
0:22:50 Are you supposed to leave it?
0:22:52 No, I think they’re supposed to fact-check.
0:22:57 I thought it was ridiculous for them to even say that we’re not going to fact-check.
0:23:00 Then why not just have a computer read the questions and shut off their mics after 90
0:23:01 seconds?
0:23:04 The whole point of a moderator is you’re supposed to moderate, and I think that when
0:23:08 someone says something outrageous and blatantly false, you should weigh in and say, there’s
0:23:10 no evidence that there’s aliens.
0:23:13 I mean, I don’t think they should have ever.
0:23:16 I think it was a mistake out of the gates to say that we’re not going to fact-check,
0:23:20 because one of Vance’s strongest moments was he just got back in their face and said,
0:23:24 the rules were you weren’t going to fact-check, so if we’re going to, let me fact-check him.
0:23:27 That was a powerful moment.
0:23:28 He wasn’t taking it.
0:23:29 He wasn’t taking it.
0:23:32 Anyways, what’s the next big thing here?
0:23:33 What do you think is the next?
0:23:36 Do we have anything else on the calendar that we need to be thoughtful around in terms of
0:23:37 this race, Jessica?
0:23:42 Well, there’s the question of whether there’ll be another debate.
0:23:45 Kamala has re-upped the, I’m going to show up.
0:23:46 I hope that you do too.
0:23:51 I feel like there’s a chance that Trump feels emboldened by this and he thinks that he could
0:23:52 do better.
0:23:56 Whether that’s in part being competitive with JD Van, so everyone says is fantastic.
0:24:00 I don’t know if you saw this, but he tweeted our truth socialed in the middle of the debate.
0:24:03 Pete Rose just died, which wasn’t true.
0:24:08 Pete Rose died the day before, but while you’re doing that, while your VP is standing
0:24:12 on stage is beyond me, though it’s not beyond me.
0:24:13 I thought it was a parody account.
0:24:15 No, it’s just dumb.
0:24:18 I mean, it’s like the guy just can’t control himself.
0:24:19 He literally can’t control himself.
0:24:25 Right, so I have like another debate, but you saw Trump pulled out of the CBS 60 Minutes
0:24:26 interview.
0:24:27 Not going to happen.
0:24:28 Kamala is doing it.
0:24:29 He thinks he’s going to win.
0:24:33 He thinks he’s going to win and anyone with an IQ above 90 is saying to him, “No, don’t
0:24:35 do whatever you can.
0:24:36 Try and put the phone down.
0:24:41 Try and put your thumbs down and do not speak to the public as much as you can.”
0:24:43 Any other observations, Jess?
0:24:46 A couple of things that I think were important.
0:24:52 The number one search political term across the entire country was abortion, and you know
0:24:54 what side that benefits.
0:25:01 JD Vanstead, his best attempt to sugarcoat a lot of this, talked about how sad it was
0:25:06 that Amber Thurman, the young mother in Georgia who passed away from sepsis, leaving a six-year-old
0:25:11 son behind because she couldn’t get medical care was, and then Amber Thurman’s family
0:25:20 released a statement thanking Governor Walz for his support and bringing those issues
0:25:21 to light.
0:25:22 Then what was the other thing that I said?
0:25:27 Well, we had said that the future of the Republican Party is less opaque because Vanstead looked
0:25:30 somewhat presidential given his age.
0:25:35 In 2028, I would think as of last night, he’s probably in Vegas, one of the top one
0:25:37 or two contenders for 2028 for the GOP nomination.
0:25:38 Totally.
0:25:39 I think that that’s right.
0:25:45 I think that his ability to cut through, like you said, to polish up the turd or whatever
0:25:51 that Donald Trump is, is something that will resonate with people.
0:25:56 If you didn’t watch him intently the last few months, you’d almost kind of like the
0:26:02 guy and think that his heart was in the right place and something, we’re not going to launch
0:26:07 into it, but that I did think he did well is, too, on immigration, he said, “I’m thinking
0:26:13 about Americans,” and that matters a lot to people who feel like they’re kind of being
0:26:14 left behind.
0:26:19 By the way, the country is moving, so yeah, I think that the Republican future is a lot
0:26:24 clearer than it was before the debate, which is a big forward-looking takeaway.
0:26:28 Well, it sounds like the police are coming for you, so that’s a signal we should wrap
0:26:29 it up here.
0:26:30 They are.
0:26:31 I gotta go.
0:26:33 Thank you for watching this episode.
0:26:34 Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates.
0:26:37 Our producers are Caroline Shagrin and David Toledo.
0:26:39 Our technical director is Drew Burroughs.
0:26:43 You can find Raging Moderates on the ProfG pod every Tuesday.
0:26:44 Please download and subscribe.
0:26:46 We’re after a huge start here.
0:26:47 We appreciate your listenership.
0:26:49 [music]
0:26:52 (upbeat music)
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