Dan Mitchinson: US correspondent recaps the JD Vance - Tim Walz vice-presidential debate

Over in the US, both vice presidential candidates just had their first and only debate ahead of the November election.

Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance clashed over hot-button issues including the Middle East crisis, immigration, taxes, and climate change - to name a few.

US correspondent Dan Mitchinson says this debate felt more civilised than the Trump-Harris clash from September - but Vance delivered the better performance.

"Vance was obviously much more polished, Walz came off as a little more nervous, especially off the top - but he has said before that he doesn't like speaking in front of crowds and gets a little nervous and flustered. But I'll tell you this - both seemed more respectful of one another than Trump and Harris did."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
International correspondence with endsit Eye Insurance Peace of Mind.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
For New Zealand Business.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
News correspondent Dan Mitchison is with US nack Yo to Dan, Hey, Jack,
you've been you've been watching the vice presidential debate. So
what's you take? Who won? And why?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I think this debate was more enjoyable and more civil.
In fact, I think civility is the word I would
have used to describe the debate tonight and the presidential one.
I mean, Vance was obviously much more polished. Waltz came
off as a little nervous, especially off the top, but
he has said before he doesn't like speaking in front
of crowds and gets a little nervous and flustered. But
I'll tell you this, both seem more respectful one another

(00:39):
than Trump and Harris did during the debate and bosher
cans before and after the debate as opposed when Harris
had to walk over to get Trump to to acknowledge
her at the beginning of their debate.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's funny, isn't It's kind of
a low bar have a more civil debate than the
presidential one. But how influential or impactful is this likely
to be the context of the presidential race.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I don't think much. I mean, you know, that's the
question everybody's asking is how many minds will it? Will
it change tonight? And I mean the percentage of voters
who have said they don't know who they're voting for
right now is really in single digits at this point.
So I can't think of a time when I, as
a voter, have said, you know, I'm going to switch
my vote because of a party's VP choice. That said,
in some ways, I think tonight's debate was probably more

(01:23):
interesting in some ways in the presidential one, just because
we haven't heard as much from these two as we
have from Harris and Trump, and maybe we have a
little bit more, But I just don't think the general
public is as familiar with both of them as they
are with the presidential candidates.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah, a lot of people have questioned Donald Trump's choice
of running mate. They said that J. D. Varnce was
a bad call. Do you think that his performance in
this debate will go some way in quieting that criticism.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
I think it might. I think there are people on
the Democrats side already in the spin room they were saying, well,
he didn't come off with a plan. But I think
the I think the tough part for him tonight was
and he was very polished. I mean, he came on.
If I had to choose a winner tonight, I would
certainly say that he probably came off the winner. But
when when Governor Waal said Advance and he was referring

(02:12):
to Donald Trump about this, you know, asking did he
lose a twenty election, and Vance said, tim, I'm focused
on the future. So Wal said that is a damning
non answer. And I think that quote right there is
the one that's going to come back to sort of
bite him and maybe erase the other sixty plus minutes
before that was brought up, and it was one of
the weaker points from him. But overall, I thought both

(02:33):
of them were very agreeable at times with one another,
which is something you're not used to having candidate say hey,
you know what, you make a good point, or yes,
I agree with you. But and then they would go
on to you know, spin their own version of the truth.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, I'll tell you what does it's You know, the
Trump campaign hasn't had that much momentum in the last
six weeks. They have really struggled off the momentum, off
the back of that Republican convention. So this is something
on that front, you know, I think so, oh, I.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Think it's something that's gonna, you know, certainly make the
news cycle tomorrow. But you're right, I don't think there's
been a lot, especially since Harris jumped into the race.
And I think Donald Trump just seems very, very tired.
He just doesn't have that spark. He just doesn't have
that energy or that you know that well, you know,
to quote Rocky three that I had the Tiger. I
guess that he had the first time around, or even

(03:20):
before when he was going up against Biden.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Now talk to us about the US involvement in the
Middle East conflict. Were two from here?

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well, I mean that's a good question. I mean President
Biden is again, you know, reaffirming his support as he
has for Israel, and he said that he was fully,
fully fully I think he used three or four follies
supportive in remarks that he made earlier today. And he's
been at the White House in the situation room. He's
watching what's going on with Iran, and I think he

(03:47):
said that this is sort of an active discussion in
what's going to happen moving forward. I mean, Republicans like
Mitch McConnell have said, you know that that Iron should
face severe consequences, and I don't know, Jack this is
I mean, this is something that a lot of people
thought that that might happen sooner rather than later going
into the election. Right now, I think this could be

(04:08):
sort of Biden's boy. I think this could be a
big burden on his administration right now. And I think
Kamala Harris is going to probably keeping a very close
eye on what mister Biden does too.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
It's just not obvious to see how it's going to
be de escalated, right because you have, first of all,
the Israelis striking parts of southern Lebanon, striking parts of
their route. You have some limited troops, but troops done
the less on the ground in Lebanon. You have Iran responding.
You then have Israel promising to respond to Iran. And
if Israel responds to Iran, it's hard to see how

(04:39):
Iran is and then going to respond to Israel and
how do we get out of this. No one seemed
to be plenty for an obvious solution to actually breaking
the cycle.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
I think you'd kind of just sum that up in
fifteen seconds better than I could to tell you the truth.
And quite honestly, I think there are a lot of
people over here, and this sounds very cold to say,
probably aren't paying the kind of attention that they should
to what is going on over there, just because of
everything that's going on here at the moment, and with
the election, you know, a month and a half away
right now, I think this is just sort of background

(05:08):
noise right now, and obviously, as you know, it shouldn't
be background noise. It should be in the forefront of
the news cycle.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Yeah, Hey, thank you so much, Dan, always appreciate your time.
Yous correspondent Dan Mitchinson with us for more from Hither
Duplessye Allen Drive. Listen live to news Talks it'd be
from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.