Mark Gilbert: former US ambassador to New Zealand on JD Vance dodging questions about 2020 in the vice-presidential debate

There's belief Republican candidate JD Vance completely lost credibility as today's vice-presidential debate ended. 

The contest against Democrat Tim Walz was mostly civil and policy focused. 

But Vance dodged a question on Donald Trump challenging the 2020 election results - saying he's 'future-focused'. 

Former US ambassador to New Zealand, Mark Gilbert, says until that moment, Vance had restored likeability and seemed strong.

"It was a very awkward moment - and if I was sitting there as an undecided voter, I would have really recoiled at the answer he gave about 2020."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What was just over months to go into the US election.
The final debate event of the campaign took place this afternoon.
The Vice President's debate between Democrat Tim Waltz and Republican JD.
Vance holds perhaps a little more weight than a VP
debate usually would, simply because the race is so close
and this is the only debate they're having. Mark Gilbert

(00:20):
is the former US Ambassador to New Zealand and is
with US now. Kyoda.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Good evening, Kyota, Good evening, Jack.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
What did you think of the debate?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, first of all, it was civil, which I thought
was a great improvement from many of the debates that
we have seen. I think both candidates got across the
points that they were trying to make, sometimes answering the
moderator's question, sometimes answering or giving the answer that they
wanted the potential voters to hear.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah. Who do you think was the stronger performer overall?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Well? Jd Vance is an accomplished debater, so you could
see that he has done this many times before. Governor
Walls I thought held his own and I thought the debate.
Each of them had strong points at different times. It
was obvious to see that the Trump campaign wanted jd

(01:22):
Vance to hammer Kamala Harris and the Democrats on energy,
which is something that sort of confounds me because during
the Biden administration, we became an energy net exporter for
the first time, and we're producing more oil more gas
than any other country in the world. So to hammer

(01:44):
them on energy, I thought was sort of a strange task.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yeah, it was an interesting strategic move, wasn't it. You know,
There's been a lot of criticism about Donald Trump's decision
to appoint Jedi Vance as his running mate. Do you
think his performance tonight will quell some of that criticism.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Well, I think that the Republicans will think that he
had a very good night, which he did. He was
very strong. He answered the questions that he wanted to
answer in the way he wanted to convey a message.
I thought he was a pretty strong defender of Donald Trump.

(02:26):
But I thought towards the end of the bait he
completely lost all credibility when he was asked about the
twenty twenty election. When he was asked, did Donald Trump
lose in twenty twenty, and he said, well, I'm focused
on the future and the only reason he is Donald
Trump's running mate is because Donald Trump and his followers

(02:49):
tried to hang his former vice president. So it was
a very awkward moment, and if I was sitting there
as an undecided voter, would have really recoiled at the
answer he gave about twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Thanks for your time, Mark, we appreciate it. That's Mark Gilbert,
the former US Ambassador to New Zealand and member of
the Democrat Party. If you watch the debate, ninety two
ninety two is our text number. If you've got thoughts
on that, I'm going to tell you who I think
came out on top of a couple of minutes, It's
fourteen past five. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

(03:26):
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.