Politico Reveals Democrats’ Unease over Tim Walz’s Debate Performance

Politico’s Meredith Lee Hill and Mia McCarthy wrote an incredibly damaging article on Thursday about Gov. Tim Walz’s (D) performance in Tuesday night’s debate.

The story suggests Democrats are panicking following Walz’a debate performance against Senator J.D Vance (R-OH), who received widespread praise amongst media elites for his debate performance.

Obtaining on and off the record statements from Democrats, Hill and McCarthy did everything but torpedo Walz’s political future:

Tim Walz was supposed to cut through the political nonsense to speak plainly to Americans about out-of-touch Republicans. But instead, some Democrats were alarmed by his performance at Tuesday’s debate and said he failed to capitalize on his opponents’ weaknesses.

Despite days of debate prep and weeks of delivering savaging critiques of former President Donald Trump on the campaign trail, they say Walz at times struggled to concisely argue why Vice President Kamala Harris would be a better president. Some Democrats were deflated after a clearly nervous Walz tripped over his words. Even Walz’s debate-night surrogates appeared somewhat surprised at how civil the governor was.

…

And in a moment that rattled Democrats, Walz delivered a muddled answer about why he previously claimed that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests — when he wasn’t — in a way that appeared he was unprepared to effectively respond. Strategists and some Democrats noted it was an unforced, self-inflicted error that at the very least is unhelpful at this late point in the race.

“That is not the appearance and debate you would want,” said the strategist. “[JD] Vance got away with a lot.”

“It was more congenial than I thought it would be, for sure,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) told Politico, noting there was “a lot of pressure” for Walz, who appeared out of his league.

“Could he have been a little harder? Sure,” a Pennsylvania Democrat strategist said of the debate. “But he spoke about the facts, and provided the truth, and provided an optimistic vision of what Kamala Harris will do.”

Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris are not used to negative reviews.

CBS News, which hosted the debate, gave the Harris-Walz ticket 85 percent positive coverage from July 21 to September 27, the Media Research Center found on Monday, while the Trump-Vance ticket received 81 percent negative coverage.

More than 43.15 million viewers tuned in to watch the debate across 15 networks, according to Nielsen ratings. The debate was the fourth least watched of the 12 vice presidential debates throughout the presidential cycles.

Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.