Former President Donald Trump’s running mate is heading into his only debate with Democratic Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday with a clear plan, according to weekend reports.
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance plans to hold Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate “accountable,” according to a Minnesota Republican lawmaker who has played Walz during Vance’s debate prep.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said during an interview on Sunday he believes that Vance holds an advantage over Walz on the issues that have consistently polled as the most important to voters this election cycle. CBS News will host the debate, moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of “Face the Nation,” The Hill noted.
“He’s going to do a great job,” Emmer told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz regarding Vance. “I can tell you, he’s got the issues on his side, Martha. He could talk about the economy that Donald Trump fixed and that Harris and Biden broke. He can talk about the border that Trump fixed and they broke. He can talk about peace and stability around the world, which they don’t even have a clue.”
“Once he understands that Tim Walz is just going to try and deflect and go into this folksy whatever, he’ll hold him accountable. I think JD will do a great job,” Emmer added.
Emmer defended Vance when Raddatz pointed out that Vance’s unfavorable numbers are higher than Walz’s. “I think JD is very likable, and I think he’s well-liked. And I don’t buy into these snapshot polls that are being done for a specific reason,” Emmer countered.
The GOP Whip also said he’s known Walz, who served in the House as a Democrat before being elected Minnesota’s governor, for years, and predicted that “once people get to know who he is and what his policies are,” they’ll see “he’s more radical than Kamala Harris.”
“People do not like him once they get to know him. And JD will expose that on Tuesday,” Emmer added.
Emmer didn’t go into the extent or amount of debate prep Vance has done, but did say, “The debate is on Tuesday night, so I’ll let your viewers decide that.”
“I’m not going to get ahead of JD and the team. If they want to talk about exactly what we did, when we did it, how many times, they can do that,” he added. “For me, I did my job — or have been doing my job — in helping JD see what it is he’s going to be dealing with on Tuesday night.”
The Minnesota Republican did say how he played Walz in helping Vance prepare for the Tuesday debate.
“I’ve known Tim, oh, probably since he was first elected almost 20 years ago. And I worked with him directly for four years. I spent the last month just going back, all of his old stuff to get his phrases down, his mannerisms, that sort of thing. My job was to be able to play Tim Walz so JD Vance knows what he’s going to see,” Emmer said.
Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported on Friday that the CBS moderators won’t fact-check the candidates in real-time like ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis did to Trump during his debate with Harris last month, but rather will leave that to the two running mates.
On Friday, CBS stated that it will be up to Vance and Walz to highlight any misstatements made by each other, noting that “the moderators will facilitate those opportunities” during rebuttal time. The network also announced that its misinformation unit, CBS News Confirmed, will offer real-time fact-checking during the debate on its live blog, social media, and during post-debate analysis on air.
