On Tuesday night, the debate stage became a battleground as vice presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz face off for the first and only time with the country watching.

One candidate was confident and poised. The other was Tim Walz. Yeah, Tim Walz floundering, revealing cracks in a campaign that has been built on dishonesty. It was a pivotal moment for both campaigns, but let’s face it, this is a vice presidential debate.

Who cares, right? Actually, it may be very important. I’m Ben Swann. This is Truth in Media.

In a surprising turn of events, the vice presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz showcased a level of civility rarely seen in today’s political climate. The candidates took to the stage in New York City. Their interactions remained pretty cordial.

They even tackled some of the biggest issues on voters minds. But as both candidates made their pitch to the nation, what the world saw was a contrast not only in style but also in demeanor. While Vance appeared actually pretty presidential, Walz, who a lot of people thought would be struggled to navigate tough topics, especially with the very first question whether or not he will support preemptive strikes by Israel on Iran.

Listen to this.

in mind where this started. October 7th Hamas terrorists. Massacred over 1400 Israelis and took prisoners. I ran. I, Israel’s ability to be able to defend itself is absolutely fundamental, getting its, hostages back. Fundamental.

Yeah, a fumble calling Israel Iran before retreating into pre rehearsed talking points and then an attack on Donald Trump. It’s just the same old song and dance from this campaign. Immediately it became evident that was not doing interviews on the campaign trail. Essentially hiding from the media was actually a huge mistake. He hadn’t had any kind of opposition so far in this race.

Vance, who has also shifted his answer, showed what some may say was not only politically savvy but a face of MAGA that others had not seen before.

I won’t answer the question, but I want to actually give an introduction to myself a little bit, because I recognize a lot of Americans don’t know who either one of us are. I was raised in a working class family. My mother required food assistance for periods of her life. My grandmother required Social Security help to raise me, and she raised me, in part because my own mother struggled with addiction for a big chunk of my early life.

As the night went on, both Vance and Walsh traded answers on a number of topics, most notably on the economy. Here, differences in areas like international trade really came into focus. On one hand, you had walls saying trust the experts and on the other.

Vance said those experts have been wrong for 40 years, and instead you should trust the record you say trust the experts. But those same experts for 40 years said that if we shipped our manufacturing base off to China, we’d get cheaper goods. They lied about that. They said if we shipped our industrial base off to other countries, to Mexico and elsewhere, it would make the middle class stronger. They were wrong about that.

Now, you made a question about experts said this.

I made a note of this. Economists don’t know. You can’t be trusted. Science can’t be trusted. National security folks can’t be trusted. Look, if you’re going to be president, you don’t have all the answers.

The most intense moments of the debate, though, came not from direct exchanges between the candidates. Nobody called each other names. In fact, they seem to agree on a lot of issues. But really, the conflict was with the moderators. This marked a pivotal turning point in the night.

Tim Walz was asked to clarify previous statements he made regarding his presence in China during the Tiananmen Square protests. Listen to this.

explain that? Oh. Just fancy. All I said on this. Was as I got that summer and misspoke on this. So I will just. That’s what I’ve said. So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests went in. And from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance.

Okay. Did you catch that? Because the protests occurred in Beijing for Tiananmen Square, not in Hong Kong.

That’s first the simplest explanation for this error. He lied, but he just couldn’t say he lied, so he kept giving ridiculous answers. Another standout moment from the night. His opponent, J.D. Vance, fact checks the moderators themselves when they address the migrant crisis and then misrepresented what was going on there.

you, governor. And just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status or temporary protected. Well, Mara, but but thank you, Senator. We have so much to get to. I think it’s important we turn now to the economy. The rules were that you got a fact check, and since you’re fact checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on.

So there’s an application called the CBP one app where you can go on as an illegal migrant, apply for asylum or apply for parole and be granted legal status at the wave of a Kamala Harris open border wand. That is not a person coming in applying for a green card and waiting for ten years. Thank you, Senator. Rotation of illegal immigration.

Margaret. Thank you, Senator, for your scribing the legal process. It has so much to Senator.

So how did this exchange end when the very moderators being corrected on this statement they brought up, they cut Vance’s microphone.

And the funniest part, they said no one at home can hear you. We actually still cut through their mics. So much for checking the facts, right? And then this leads us to the biggest disagreement between the candidates. January 6th. Whether or not President Trump will challenge the results of the 2024 election. Listen,

a threat to our democracy in a way that we had not seen. And it manifested itself because of Donald Trump’s inability to say. He is still saying he didn’t lose the election. I would just ask. Did he lose the 2020 election? Tim, I’m focused on the future. Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 Covid situation?

That is pretty damning. That is a damning non-answer. It’s a damning non-answer for you to not talk about censorship.

So in the end, the debate illustrated the stark contrast between these two candidates. You had JD Vance, his ability to pivot toward his strengths and walls was pretty unsteady, failing to engage in difficult topics, effectively leading him to say in his own words, things that just sound plain weird.

friends with school shooters. I’ve seen it,

and I’m a knucklehead at times.

So again, this is debate 101, right? Never refer to yourself as a knucklehead, whether you’re in a vice presidential debate or a high school debate. It doesn’t matter. Don’t call yourself names. It makes it too easy.

a knucklehead at times.

Okay, so as I mentioned earlier, vice presidential debate, what kind of effect does it really have? Well, actually, if you watch media that especially is resistant to Trump and Vance, if you listen to what they’re saying and read between the lines, I would tell you that this debate is much more important than you think.

At the end of the night, CNN sat around talking about how strong of a performance J.D. Vance had and how unnerving it was for them. Listen to this.

was a clear lack of preparation and execution here.

I think the lack of interviews that he has done with National media, with local media, it showed he needed more energy.

Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, J.D. Vance is, much more, experienced at this, at public

Yeah. He’s much more experienced at public speaking. No, no, no, that’s not the issue. If you listen to more of what they said throughout the night, there was actually alarm being raised by CNN commentators. Why? Because J.D. Vance did exactly what he needed to do during that debate last night. And here’s what he did. He was the anti-Trump MAGA candidate, not against Trump, but he was the opposite of all the things they complain about Trump.

They say he is the wrong tone. He’s abrasive. Women don’t like him. What J.D. Vance did last night is he’s shored up a lot of those groups. He said, you can still have a MAGA message, but with a softer tone. And that’s essentially what he gave. The only thing that CNN is more afraid of now than Donald Trump becoming president again is Donald Trump with a softer MAGA candidate who knows how to tell women who have had abortions that he can see them, that he loves them and that he cares about them.

That was the most unnerving thing for CNN last night, the Trump message, but delivered in a very, very different way. J.D. Vance, I would predict, has now become the biggest threat to mainstream media because of his performance last night. That is our show for you today. I’m Ben Swan. You can find us on X @Truth_InMedia

You can find me @BenSwann_. And you can always watch our full episodes at TruthInMedia.com. We’ll see you tomorrow.