Under the harsh glare of Regime Media scrutiny, the consensus seems to be that Minnesota Governor and Democrat presidential nominee Tim Walz was either under or overprepared, and was hurt by the Harris campaign’s decision to keep him away from interviews.
Watch as CNN’s Abby Phillip delivers a brutal assessment in the immediate aftermath of the debate:
CNN panel reluctantly admit Vance won the debate, say Walz was unprepared, overcoached and underexposed to local media pic.twitter.com/l7YkuP1QhL
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 2, 2024
ABBY PHILLIP: I think we shouldn't lose track, I think- even in the civility, of the fact that JD Vance came to this debate to land a bunch of punches, and he did. He landed a lot of punches in between all the niceties and all of that. And the thing that- that really stood out to me was that Tim Walz did not seem prepared for it. He didn't respond to a lot of the criticisms and attacks that Vance put on the table. He allowed some clear falsehoods to just go completely unanswered. He allowed JD Vance, essentially, to dodge on a whole host of issues: on climate change, on- on the issue of his flip flopping on Donald Trump he… he allowed Vance initially to claim that Trump salvaged the Affordable Care Act. It took him several sentences to get to the part of his answer- Walz's answer,
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: …where he- where he actually responded to that. I mean, I think there was a clear lack of preparation and execution here on Walz’s part.
DANA BASH: I think he- I think actually it's the opposite. I think he had too much preparation.
PHILLIP: Maybe.
BASH: He had so many lines that he was clearly trying to say that he didn't listen. And when- when JD Vance said one of the many, many things he really hit Kamala Harris on, not Tim Walz but Kamala Harris, he didn't respond because he clearly had things in his mind. I think the lack of interviews that he has done with national media, with local media, it showed. He needed more reps.
This echoes concerns expressed by ABC’s Jon Karl, who said:
JON KARL: He was simply out of practice. I mean, I don't know why they've done it but they've kept him out of the limelight. They've kept him away from reporters. They haven't had him do any interviews. And he was clearly unsteady through much of that debate. And in contrast J.D. Vance was very smooth. He took the arguments not to Walz. He was very respectful of Walz. Took it to Kamala Harris.
In addition to questioning the campaign’s decision to stuff Walz in the same Plexiglass Basement as Vice President Kamala Harris, there were concerns over Walz’s preparation. While Phillip thought Walz was underprepared, Dana Bash thought perhaps Walz was overprepared.
Either way it was a brutal night, both for the Regime and for the press that covers it. So much so that the Regime Media admit Vance's victory.