It wasn't really about Vance or Walz: It was immediately clear the two prominent politicians on stage were merely proxies for their running mates, using the questions as vehicles to attack their top-of-the-ticket rivals and on many occasions going out of their way not to personally attack each other.
Walz used his first question, regarding Iran's strikes on Israel, to hit at Trump's age: "A nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment." He went on to assail "Donald Trump's fickle leadership" around the world.
Vance replied, "Who has been the vice president for the last three and a half years? And the answer is your running mate, not mine. Donald Trump consistently made the world more secure."
Economic records under the microscope: Walz came equipped with an argument to attack Trump on the economy, which is one of the GOP nominee's strongest issues in the polls.
"Kamala Harris' Day One was Donald Trump's failure on Covid that led to the collapse of our economy. We were already, before Covid, in a manufacturing recession — about 10 million people out of work, largest percentage since the Great Depression," Walz said.
Vance responded by attacking the Biden-Harris economic record as "atrocious" and defending Trump.
"Honestly, Tim, I think you got a tough job here, because you got to play Whac-A-Mole," he said, accusing Walz of having to "pretend" that Trump's economy improved wages and had lower inflation.
Vance defends his flip on past criticism of Trump: Vance was well-prepared with an answer when asked to explain his past criticisms of Trump, including saying he could be "America's Hitler" and his critiques of Trump's economic record as president.
"Sometimes, of course, I disagree with the president, but I've also been extremely open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump. I was wrong, first of all, because I believed some of the media stories that turned out to be dishonest fabrications of his record," Vance said, treading over territory he and his campaign have talked about in media interviews and responses to stories.
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