Danielle McLaughlin: US Political Commentator ahead of the vice presidential debate

JD Vance and Tim Walz are set to do battle for what looks to be the final debate of this US presidential election. 

The vice-presidential candidates will meet for their only debate in New York today, which gets underway at 2pm NZ time. 

US political commentator Danielle McLaughlin says the buzz could reach the levels of Joe Biden vs Sarah Palin in 2008. 

She told Ryan Bridge vice-presidential picks are normally safe, but Walz and especially Vance are really out of the mainstream. 

McLaughlin says Vance has been attacking cat ladies and Taylor Swift and has repeatedly spread crazy rumours about Haitian immigrants eating pets in the mid-west. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So this developing news out of the US this morning
to do with the Middle East. Officials there believe Iran
could be preparing to imminently strike Israel with a ballistic missile. Now,
there have been reports in the last few minutes of
air sirens sounding in central Israel. Will keep you up
to speed with what's happening there. First, though, we're going

(00:21):
to Daniel McGlocklin, our US correspondent political commentator, because there
is a vice presidential debate happening in the US today.
But first, Danielle, what is the latest from the White House? Right?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Ryan? So, you know, typically for any US administration, they
have said that they're tracking events very closely, of course,
and they're committed to Israel's defense. What that likely means
is the same thing that happened back in April, where
there was another attack that came from inside Iran and
the US defense forces, both by ship and by air,

(00:53):
helped get rid of about three hundred drones in missiles
basically shoot those down before they got close to Israel.
So if it comes to that, the US will step
in a defensive role. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
The other big thing happening in the US, of course,
is this what's the final debate in the election? JD.
Vance and Tim Walls because the Trump Harris campaigns aren't
doing another one.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
No, Well, Kamala Harris has said, you know, I'm up
for it, and Trump has currently said that he's not.
I think that choice may depend ultimately on how Vance
does tonight against Waltz. You've got this really sort of interesting,
really really different couple of guys, right, You've obviously got
Republican versus Democrat. You've got a Yale law school grad
and former private equity guy versus a former public school

(01:39):
teacher and football coach. You know, very different in their approach.
Vance is very much a kind of a firebrand and
in a lot of ways is more conservative than Trump,
whereas whereas Waltz is a little bit more moderate. You know,
he seems kind of like a nice, sort of older
white guy. To put it that way, but it's true,
and he's going to be aiming for the middle because
some people see Kamla Harris is too far right as

(02:02):
left to progressive.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
People hate Van saying.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
He is the least liked the vice presidential candidate in
the last thirty years, even LEAs like even less liked
than Sarah Palin, which is saying.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Is saying something. Do you think people are going to
watch this debate? Because I was having a look at
the audience size. There was sixty seven million for the
Trump Harris debate, and the VP debates typically don't do
that well, although Palen, you mentioned Palin Biden in two
thousand and eight, that was the biggest audience for a
VP debate ever, because obviously everybody wanted to see what

(02:42):
Sarah Palin was going to say. Do you think maybe
because Vance is so disliked, that people might tune in
just to see what happens.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Are you suggesting there's going to be some hate watching?

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Ryan?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Hey, I actually think you make a really good point,
and I don't mean to overstate, but I do think
these two are going to make a difference to the
presidential candidates in ways that we really don't see that often. Right,
Normally VP picks are pretty safe, but these guys are,
you know, a little especially with Dvance really kind of
out of the mainstream, and for someone who used to

(03:17):
be a vocal vote Trump critic, he's gone really far,
actually further out to the right than Trump has himself.
So his attacks cat ladies. You know his attack Taylor Sworth.
He's repeated these crazy things about people eating pets in
the Midwest. I think there is more bars about this
than in normal years, when you know the VP doesn't

(03:38):
feel like it matters.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, yeah, I think you might be right there, Danielle.
Thank you very much for your time. Daniel McLoughlin, US
correspondent political commentator out in New York City. For more
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