new york – Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley is confident of this Ohio Senator JD Vance Is “all set” for Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate.
Vance, of former President Trump The running mates on the GOP 2024 ticket will face off with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, in New York City in the only debate between the two running mates.
“You look at everything he’s done since he was nominated as a candidate. He’s preparing, he’s talking to the press, he’s going out, he’s traveling around and talking to American voters. So, he’s very ready to have that conversation,” Whatley stressed in a Fox News digital interview hours before the debate.
A source familiar with Vance’s debate preparation told Fox News Digital that last month, the senator participated in a series of murder board sessions with his team, where a group of people ask tough questions and help someone prepare. To discuss clearly. Ordeal or trial, or in Vance’s case, the Vice Presidential debate.
The who, what, where and when of Tuesday’s JD Vance-Tim Walz vice presidential debate
Republican vice presidential nominee Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio speaks during a campaign rally in Newtown, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Lawrence Kesterson)
According to the source, Vance held a mock debate last week Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota, Walz is filling the role of House majority whip. Former Trump administration Treasury Department Assistant Secretary Monica Crowley served as one of the moderators for CBS News, hosting the debate in New York City.
halfway through fake debate, A severe storm knocked out power near Cincinnati, Ohio, where Vance lives and where the preparation session was held. But according to the source who first shared details with Fox News, Vance and the team continued to use lanterns for lighting and cellphones for timers.
Click here for the latest Fox News updates on the VP debate
Leading up to the 2024 vice presidential debate, Vance, 40, has been very talkative, sitting down for multiple interviews and taking plenty of questions from reporters on the campaign trail.
Walz, who is 60, Has been increasingly reluctant to speak to the national news media.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee, speaks to supporters in Grand Rapids, Michigan on September 12, 2024. (Detroit Free Press/Adam Vander Kooy/via USA TODAY Network Images)
The Governor was in the debate camp ahead of the showdown to prepare. Walz clashed with advisers and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — who played Vance in the mock debate — in Harbor Springs, Michigan, near the northern tip of the state’s Lower Peninsula.
Walz’s wife, Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz, is also helping.
Asked on the eve of the showdown with Vance how his wife was helping him prepare for the debate, Walz told reporters, “She beats everybody.”
What the latest Fox News 2024 election power rankings show
With Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump unlikely to face off for a second time — and with only a slim margin in the White House race with five weeks to go until Election Day in November — the stakes will rise in the running mate debate, which has traditionally been It is seen as a second-tier event in the presidential campaign.
“Given that we are likely to have a head-to-head showdown between the only major candidates and this is the last meeting between the two tickets right before the election, it increases the significance and importance of this debate,” the longtime Republican. Strategist and communicator Ryan Williams, a veteran of multiple presidential campaigns, told Fox News.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump debate in Philadelphia on September 10, 2024. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Most political pundits said harris wishes good luck Trump in his first and possibly only debate last month. And flash polls of debate monitors agreed.
So Vance’s strong performance in Tuesday’s vice presidential debate could give Trump a boost.
Click here for the latest Fox News polling on the 2024 election
And there is an example from 12 years ago.
After then-President Barack Obama’s fall in the first debate against 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, then-Vice President Joe Biden’s stellar performance in the debate against Romney’s running mate Rep. Paul Ryan gave the Democrat ticket a Gave a big boost. ,
Republican vice presidential nominee Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio and Democratic vice presidential nominee Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota. (Getty Images)
Whatley, a former RNC general counsel and former North Carolina GOP chair who is a close Trump ally, told Fox Digital that Vance’s debate mission is to “get the message across” to voters across the country.
Whatley argued that “If you look at the Democrats, they don’t just have a messenger problem, they have a message problem. The policies they’re pushing right now are not popular with the American people… I think on every one of these issues, the Republican ticket is the ticket of strength, the ticket of common sense, and I feel really good about where we’re going tonight.”
The RNC chair also said when it comes to Vance’s game plan for the debate, “I think he’s going to talk about the issues that voters care about and those are issues like inflation, like the Southern “Issues like the border, grocery prices, at the store and at the gas pump are really what people are going to be talking about.”
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Part of the Harris campaign’s strategy ahead of the debate is to raise expectations for Walz.
For weeks, they have portrayed Walz as a regular guy who will face the Ivy League-coached Vance. He did not mention that Walz won six House races and two gubernatorial elections.
The Trump campaign is also playing the same game.
“Walz is very good at debating. I want to repeat that. Tim Walz is very good at debating. Really good. He’s been a politician for almost 20 years. He’ll be very well prepared for tomorrow night,” the Trump campaign’s senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters on Monday.
But Trump undermined the campaign’s argument by alleging in an interview with Kellyanne Conway’s Fox Nation program “Here’s the deal with Caelynn.” Vance is “going up against an idiot. A complete idiot, how he picked him is incredible.”
Walz comes into the debate with better polling numbers than Vance.
According to Fox News’ latest national poll, Walz was slightly above water with a 43% favorable rating and 40% unfavorable rating.
Vance stood in negative territory at 38%-50% favorable/unfavorable.
