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Top 5 clashes between Vance and Walz during debate showdown: ‘Your mics are cut’

Top 5 clashes between Vance and Walz during debate showdown: ‘Your mics are cut’

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance took the same stage for their first and only vice presidential debate this election cycle on Tuesday evening, when the pair had a handful of fiery clashes over top voter concerns.  The CBS News Vice Presidential Debate showcased the two vice presidential candidates’ platforms on issues such as the ongoing war raging in the Middle East, abortion laws and their respective tickets’ economic records. Amid the 90-minute debate, Vance and Walz had a handful of clashes, including moderators turning off Vance’s microphone.  VANCE, WALZ SPAR OVER ABORTION AND IMMIGRATION IN FIRST AND ONLY VP DEBATE  The CBS debate’s rules included leaving microphones on for both candidates no matter who was speaking, breaking from the two presidential debates this cycle that muted microphones when a candidate was not speaking. The outlet, however, reserved the right to turn the microphones off if they felt it was warranted.  Moderators Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell did mute the pair Tuesday when Vance spoke up to complain that the moderators were trying to fact-check him on his remarks regarding illegal immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.  “The people that I’m most worried about in Springfield, Ohio, are the American citizens who have had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’s open border. It is a disgrace,” Vance said referring to about immigration issues in a city in his home state. After Vance and Walz both delivered responses regarding immigration, Brennan told viewers that Springfield “does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status.” Vance took issues with the on-air “fact-check” before he was muted.  ABC’S LINSEY DAVIS ADMITS FACT-CHECKING OF TRUMP WAS BECAUSE CNN LET HIS STATEMENTS ‘HANG’ AT FIRST DEBATE “The rules were that you were not going to fact-check, and since you’re fact checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on,” Vance said. “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.” Moderators tried to quiet Vance before cutting his and Walz’s mics.  “Gentlemen, the audience can’t hear you because your mics are cut,” Margaret Brennan said. “We have so much we want to get to.” Walz was forced to answer questions regarding his travel to China during Tuesday night’s debate.  Walz has said he was in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen Square protests in the spring of 1989. Minnesota Public Radio and other media outlets, however, are now reporting that Walz actually did not travel to China until August of that year.  CBS News moderator Margaret Brennan asked Walz to explain the discrepancy.  WALZ FORCED TO CORRECT RECORD ON WHETHER HE WAS IN CHINA FOR THE TIANANMEN SQUARE PROTESTS “Look, I grew up in a small rural Nebraska town, a town that you rode your bike with your buddies till the streetlights come on, and I’m proud of that service,” a visibly shaky Walz said. “I joined the National Guard at 17, worked on family farms and then I used the GI bill to become a teacher.”  “I came back home and then started a program to take young people there. We would take basketball teams. We would take baseball teams. We would take dancers. And we would go back and forth to China,” Walz said, noting the trips were “to try and learn.”  “Look, my community knows who I am. They saw where I was at. I will be the first to tell you I have poured my heart into my community, and I’ve tried to do the best I can, but I’ve not been perfect,” Walz continued.  “And I’m a knucklehead at times.” Brennan pushed back, reminding Walz of the question and again asking him to explain the discrepancy.  “All I said on this was, as I got there that summer and misspoke on this,” Walz said. “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 in governance.”  OB-GYNS DECRY THE ‘FEARMONGERING’ ABOUT GEORGIA’S ABORTION LAWS: ‘THE LIES ARE HURTING WOMEN’ Walz claimed during the debate that a woman in Georgia likely died due to the state’s “restrictive” abortion laws after Roe v. Wade was overturned, sparking a clash with Vance.  “There’s a young woman named Amber Thurman. She happened to be in Georgia, a restrictive state. Because of that, she had to travel a long distance to North Carolina to try and get her care. Amber Thurmond died in that journey back and forth. The fact of the matter is, how can we as a nation say that your life and your rights, as basic as the right to control your own body, is determined on geography,” Walz said during the debate while sparring with Vance on abortion laws.  “There’s a very real chance that if Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota, she would be alive today. That’s why the restoration of Roe v. Wade,” he said.  Walz’s remarks come after ProPublica published an article last month blaming the deaths of two Georgia women, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, on the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the state’s new abortion limits after the women received chemically induced abortions in 2022.  GEORGIA DOCTORS SPEAK OUT TO CHALLENGE MISINFORMATION ON STATE’S ABORTION LAW, DEATH OF AMBER THURMAN Georgia’s heartbeat law states that “no abortion shall be performed if the unborn child has a detectable human heartbeat except in the event of a medical emergency or medically futile pregnancy.” Vance shot back that a Minnesota abortion law does not require doctors to save a baby who survives an abortion. “First of all, governor, I agree with

Conservative social media reactions pour in declaring winner of VP debate: ‘This was a massacre’

Conservative social media reactions pour in declaring winner of VP debate: ‘This was a massacre’

Reactions from conservatives on social media poured in during and following the first and only vice presidential debate on Tuesday night with the majority praising JD Vance for his performance. “This was a massacre,” Outkick founder Clay Travis posted on X. “JD Vance absolutely destroyed Tim Walz.” “JD Vance just won big,” conservative commentator Charlie Kirk posted on X along with a video montage of facial reactions by the two candidates. “And it wasn’t even close.” “Tonight’s debate underscored that the Harris-Walz ticket is the most radical in our nation’s history,” Jessica Anderson, President of Sentinel Action Fund, said in a statement.  WALZ STUNS INTERNET WITH VP DEBATE GAFFE: ‘I’VE BECOME FRIENDS WITH SCHOOL SHOOTERS’ “As Governor, Walz implemented his far-left agenda in Minnesota, with soft-on-crime policies, authoritarian COVID lockdowns, and support for limitless abortion. As Vice President, he will expand his extremism beyond Minnesota as the unapologetic wingman for Kamala Harris.” “Vance absolutely crushed it tonight and secured a very bright future in the GOP,” American Principles Project President Terry Schilling posted on X. VANCE RIPS WALZ ON ECONOMY, SAYS HE’S FORCED TO ‘PRETEND’ TRUMP DIDN’T LOWER INFLATION’ “Very proud of JD for a stellar performance tonight,” former presidential candidate Vivek Ramasawmy posted on X. “And my condolences to Tim Walz – it was unkind for them to put him in this position.” “JD Vance won big and demonstrated why he was a fantastic pick by President Trump,” Arkansas GOP Sen. Tom Cotton posted on X. “He skillfully contrasted Trump’s record of peace and prosperity with Kamala’s record of disaster.” TIM WALZ SAID HE WENT TO CHINA ‘DOZENS’ OF TIMES, NOW HIS CAMPAIGN SAYS ITS ‘CLOSER TO 15’ The Harris campaign released a statement following the debate expressing why it believes that Walz, not Vance, had the strongest night. “Tonight, Governor Walz showed exactly why Vice President Harris picked him: he is a leader who cares about the issues that matter most to the American people,” Harris-Walz Campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement. “In the debate, Americans got to see a real contrast: a straight talker focused on sharing real solutions, and a slick politician who spent the whole night defending Donald Trump’s division and failures.” “On every single issue – the economy, health care, foreign policy, reproductive freedom, gun violence – Governor Walz won. He spoke passionately about the Vice President’s vision for a new way forward for the country. And in what was the most critical moment of the entire debate, which came in its final exchange, he stood up for our Constitution, while JD Vance admitted he’d put Trump ahead of the country.” O’Malley Dillon continued, “The choice facing the American people in November was on full display tonight: between charting a new way forward, or going backwards. Vice President Harris believes that the American people deserve to see her and Trump on the debate stage one more time. She will be in Atlanta on October 23 – Donald Trump should step up and face the voters.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP  The Trump campaign said in a statement that Vance “unequivocally won tonight’s debate in dominating fashion” in what was “the best debate performance from any Vice-Presidential candidate in history.” “Senator Vance spoke the truth, eloquently prosecuted the case against Kamala Harris’ failed record, and effectively held Governor Tim Walz accountable for his lies on behalf of the Harris-Biden Administration,” Trump senior advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said. “Senator Vance also perfectly articulated the Trump-Vance vision to make America safe again with their plan to launch the largest mass deportation operation in history; to make America strong again with a peace through strength foreign policy agenda; and to make America wealthy again by cutting taxes, unleashing American energy dominance, and ending inflation.”  “Tonight, Senator Vance proved why President Trump chose him as his running mate. Together, they make the strongest and most dynamic presidential ticket ever, and they are going to win on November 5th.” 

New Jersey Democrat proposes bill to create travel advisories to inform pregnant women of state abortion laws

New Jersey Democrat proposes bill to create travel advisories to inform pregnant women of state abortion laws

A New Jersey Democrat introduced legislation establishing travel advisories informing women of restrictive abortion laws in other states they may be visiting. The bill, proposed by state Sen. John Burzichelli, would require New Jersey’s health and state departments to launch a website that would list color codes for states depending on how restrictive their abortion laws are, according to NJ Spotlight News. “If you’re an individual, a woman, traveling across this country for business — or if you’re thinking about going to school in Mississippi [for instance] — it will help you to know what kind of medical services are available to you should you need emergency care of some kind,” Burzichelli told the outlet. The color codes under the “Reproductive Health Travel Advisory” are blue, yellow and red. GEORGIA JUDGE OVERTURNS STATE’S SIX-WEEK ‘HEARTBEAT’ ABORTION LAW, CALLS IT ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ Blue would mean women can exercise normal caution and access to abortion would be available without fear of civil or criminal prosecution, and yellow would mean women should exercise increased caution as abortion restrictions could result in civil or criminal prosecution. Red would mean women are urged to reconsider travel because abortion access is extremely restricted and could result in medical issues and civil or criminal prosecution. “Right now, there’s no single place to go to say, ‘OK I have to travel. I have to go to Texas and then move over and go to Tennessee,’” Burzichelli said. “You don’t have that info at your fingertips. You can find it, but it’s a hodge-podge.” “You, as an American female, do not have equal rights across all 50 states,” he added. “And it’s important for you to know what rights you don’t have when you go somewhere, because something unexpected could happen.” JUDGE BLOCKS NY AG LETITIA JAMES FROM TRYING TO SILENCE PREGNANCY CENTERS THAT PROMOTE ABORTION PILL REVERSAL The proposal comes after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022, returning the power to make laws on abortion access back to the states. Following the ruling, a number of Republican-controlled states enacted laws restricting abortion access, with some exceptions such as in cases of medical emergencies, while some Democrat-controlled states have approved advanced protections of abortion access. “It’s hard to imagine we’re even talking about this in 2024 in America,” Burzichelli said. “To think that we have to think about even doing this just speaks volumes about where we are at the moment,” New Jersey expanded access to abortion, enacting statutory protection for abortion as a fundamental right, and the state’s highest court ruled the “fundamental right of a woman to control her body and destiny” is protected under the state’s constitution, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. The state also welcomes women who travel from other states for an abortion because their own states have bans in place. Additionally, the Garden State protects them from being extradited after the procedure.

Politics hijacks hurricane devastation in the South, Biden calls Trump a liar

Politics hijacks hurricane devastation in the South, Biden calls Trump a liar

Television news, with few exceptions, completely botched the unimaginable devastation that struck western North Carolina over the weekend. Once Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and headed inland, officials assumed it would lose strength. Instead, cities like Asheville, and eastern Tennessee, were hit with an almost biblical level of flooding, leaving a trail of impassable roads and collapsed bridges. Why was this not the lead story everywhere? To be candid, North Carolina is just a blip on the radar of the coastal media elites, dismissed as fly-over country. Most news organizations don’t have a single reporter based there. NORTH CAROLINA REELING FROM DEVASTATING HELENE AS DEATH TOLL CLIMBS: ‘NEVER SEEN ANYTHING QUITE LIKE THIS’ President Biden just put out statements over the weekend, adding to the sense that this wasn’t a Katrina-level crisis. I went to New Orleans eight months after that 2005 storm and was stunned to see mile after mile and after mile of uninhabited suburban homes damaged by the flooding. Imagine if the same level of flooding hit northern New Jersey, right across from Manhattan. There would have been 500 times as much coverage. In fact, we had a real-life example in Superstorm Sandy, which rightly drew enormous media attention. Many shows had their B teams in, with few taking charge and ordering a full-scale mobilization on the story. I was just realizing the magnitude of the destruction on my show when leadoff guest Mary Katharine Ham, who’s from North Carolina, texted me an hour before airtime and pushed to cover the story that was being largely ignored. It was a packed program, but I gave her a couple of minutes to talk about it on “Media Buzz.”  By Monday, perhaps realizing that they looked terrible, TV outlets shifted gears and started constant coverage of the plight of North Carolina, interviewing local officials and survivors. But their journalists faced the challenge of getting to a mountainous region that was isolated and in some towns all but wiped out. And yet the New York Times and Washington Post did a terrific job of getting their reporters to produce one front-page story after another from the city of Asheville, an artsy town partially submerged by the monster flooding.  KAMALA HARRIS’ SOFT MEDIA INTERVIEWS ARE A ‘BETRAYAL OF JOURNALISM’: MARY KATHARINE HAM As the Times put it, the storm left “at least 37 people dead in the region and communities struggling to cope without water, food, power, gasoline and cellphone service.” The Washington Post, from Canton, N.C.: “Doris Towers awoke to the beeping of her husband’s dialysis machine early Friday morning, meaning it had lost power. Her neighbor’s Christmas lights, still up from last year, had gone out. Those were early hints of Helene’s destruction to come. She hadn’t known a storm was on the way. “Across the mountains in Swannanoa, Joe Dancy and Jenna Shaw got up before dawn to walk their dog and saw floodwaters creeping toward their house. An hour later, they were climbing out a window with the help of a National Guard soldier.” Biden, who will visit North Carolina today – Kamala Harris is also planning a visit–addressed the nation on Monday morning with his trademark empathy: “I’m here to tell every single survivor in these impacted areas that we will be there with you as long as it takes.” But the president, who kept coughing because of a cold, should have given that speech on Sunday. That would have spurred the journalists into action, because they often follow the White House, and instead left the impression that no one was in charge.  Donald Trump, meanwhile, visited a shelter in Valdosta, Ga., and said, reading from notes:  TRUMP LAUNCHES GOFUNDME TO HELP HURRICANE HELENE VICTIMS, RAISES MORE THAN $1M “As you know, our country is in the final weeks of a hard-fought national election. At a time like this when a crisis hits, when our fellow citizens cry out in need, none of that matters. We’re not talking about politics now. We have to all get together and get this solved.” The important thing is that Trump, working with Franklin Graham, son of Rev. Billy, who heads a Christian relief group, brought plenty of supplies. But the former president didn’t stay on that high road for long. He posted that Biden and Harris “have left Americans to drown in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and elsewhere in the South.” FEMA officials have been working furiously – more than 3,300 federal agents are on the ground–and Harris, canceling several events, returned to Washington for a briefing from agency chief Deanne Criswell, and addressed officials there about the “heartbreaking” losses. Trump also claimed that GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp had not been able to reach Biden. But Kemp told reporters he did talk to Biden and the president “offered that if there are other things that we need just to call him directly, which – I appreciated that.” “He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Biden said. “I don’t know why he does this. I don’t care what he says about me. I care about what he communicates to people that are in need. He implies that we’re not doing everything possible. We are.” SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES Trump also suggested, without evidence, that the Biden-Harris administration is deliberately not helping Republicans in red counties.  Perhaps it was inevitable that partisan politics would hijack a crisis that has devastated many southern states. And I’m glad that cable news, having largely snoozed through the weekend, is now all in on the coverage.

Voter panel reacts to Vance clash with debate moderators, mic cutoff: ‘You’re fact checking me’

Voter panel reacts to Vance clash with debate moderators, mic cutoff: ‘You’re fact checking me’

A focus group of Republicans, Democrats and independents reacted to former President Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance’s microphone being cut off during the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate on Tuesday night. Independent and Republican voters disapproved of the interjection, but independent voters dipped significantly when Vance began explaining his stance. Despite CBS announcing that it would not allow live fact-checking during the debate, moderator Margaret Brennan interjected to correct Vance after he suggested that illegal immigrants are overwhelming public resources in Springfield, Ohio. JD VANCE REMINDS CBS MODERATORS OF DEBATE RULES AFTER THEY TRY TO FACT-CHECK HIM ABC DEBATE MODERATORS SPARK FURY FOR AGGRESSIVE FACT-CHECKING OF TRUMP, EASY TREATMENT OF HARRIS “Just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status,” Brennan said. “The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check,” Vance reminded them. “And since you are fact-checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on.” When Walz tried interjecting, independent approval also decreased for a brief moment.  While explaining the process of obtaining legal status and tying it to a Harris-backed immigration policy, the moderators again spoke over Vance, thanking him for “describing the legal process” before they cut off his microphone as Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz attempted to argue with him. When the microphones were cut off, the independent voter dial line can be seen moving in the approval direction as Republican approval decreased slightly.  Fox News Digital’s Yael Halon contributed to this report. 

Vance’s debate answer on immigration crisis shows voter polarization in real time responses

Vance’s debate answer on immigration crisis shows voter polarization in real time responses

Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s argument that the U.S. needed to “stop the bleeding” at the border during Tuesday’s debate elicited a mixed response from voters, “Before we talk about deportations, we have to stop the bleeding,” Vance argued during Tuesday’s debate. “We have a historic immigration crisis because Kamala Harris started and said that she wanted to undo all of Donald Trump’s border policies.” According to Fox News debate dials, which measure how Republican, Democrat, and Independent voters are responding to particular answers by candidates during the debate, the response by Vance received mixed responses. WALZ REPEATS GEORGIA ABORTION DEATH FALSEHOOD DECRIED BY DOCTORS AS ‘FEARMONGERING’ While Republican views of Vance’s answers had an immediate positive response, Democratic viewers of the debate went in an opposite direction, the dials showed. Independents, meanwhile, hovered around 50% approval with Vance’s answer. Voters began to see Vance’s response in a more positive light when he touched on former President Donald Trump’s border policies, arguing that the next administration should return to handling the border similar to how Trump did during his four years in office. DISGRACED EX-CBS NEW ANCHOR DAN RATHER SAYS OLD NETWORK LOOKING TO AVOID ‘BLOWBACK’ ABC RECEIVED “You’ve gotta reimplement Donald Trump’s border policies, build the wall, reimplement deportations,” Vance said, garnering an improved response from independent voters and a very positive response from Republicans. Meanwhile, Democratic voters remained sour on the Ohio Senator’s answer. Voters also responded well to Vance’s remarks on deportation, where the Ohio Senator argued in favor of focusing on those who have committed crimes in addition to crossing the border illegally. “We start with the criminal migrants,” Vance said on deportations, gaining a strongly positive response from Republicans, a mostly positive response from independents, and an improved response among Democratic voters. “About a million of those people have committed some form of crime in addition to crossing the border illegally, I think you start for deportations on those folks.”