Pollster Nate Silver recommended that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) was “sanewashing” his Republican rival, Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R), in Tuesday night time’s vice presidential debate.
“The term ‘sanewashing’ is going around among liberal media critics, the idea that the media is too willing to normalize [former President] Trump and Vance’s behavior,” Silver mentioned in a Substack publish Wednesday. “Wasn’t Walz sanewashing Vance? He said nothing about the Republican ticket’s conspiratorial claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets, for instance.”
The controversy between Walz and Vance was principally civil and policy-focused, standing in distinction with the controversy between the 2 vice presidential picks’ operating mates a month prior. Notably, Walz and Vance typically mentioned they agreed on sure points all through the controversy.
Nevertheless, there was a second of slight stress between Vance and Walz over whether or not Trump misplaced the 2020 presidential election. When pressed by the Minnesota governor on the subject, Vance responded that he’s “focused on the future.”
“Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 COVID situation?” Vance continued.
Walz referred to as the response “a damning nonanswer.”
“But if the VP debate represented a brief return to normalcy — it was a cordial and substantive evening, and Walz clearly seemed to think that playing the happy warrior role suited his brand[] — it was also a reminder that this election would probably still be close in more normal times,” Silver mentioned Wednesday.
“Between immigration, foreign policy failures, the high inflation of 2021-23, a thermostatic voter backlash to leftward shifts on cultural issues, [Vice President] Harris’s flip-flops after her sharp left turn in 2019, and Biden’s fitness for office, a more disciplined and normal Republican campaign would have a lot of ammunition to work with,” Silver continued.
The Hill has reached out to the Harris marketing campaign and Trump marketing campaign.
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