The easiest prediction to make in light of the last couple of days of Regime Media expectation setting and Harris talking point-echoing was that, after proclaiming Minnesota Governor and Democrat vice presidential nominee Tim Walz would virtually soil himself on the debate stage, they’d turn around and proclaim him the winner.
This prediction was made tongue-in-cheek, but we turned out to be right.
After spending two days assuring the American public that Tim Walz would soil his britches on stage, the media will proclaim him the overwhelming winner of tonight's debate
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 2, 2024
MSNBC, the most Harris-sycophantic cable news outlet, came through. Here is MSNBC anchor and Russia Hoax disseminator Rachel Maddow doing her Regime Media best to prop Walz up:
SHOCK: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow calls the debate for Tim Walz pic.twitter.com/RkKJRGmDqU
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 2, 2024
RACHEL MADDOW: The vice presidential candidates’ debate wraps up at CBS News headquarters in New York City. You see the candidates there being joined by their wives. Usha Vance and Gwen Walz. A cordial debate between these two men. I wouldn't describe them as evenly matched because they are so different. So different in style and so different on substance. Very interested to hear from the spin room, to hear from all of my colleagues here to get to all of the analysis we are going to get to. I think the big picture takeaway from this is that one of these candidates is much slicker than the other, is a much more practiced, kind of professional debate style speaker and the other candidate won. There was one bad moment for Tim Walz in this debate where he got mixed up and embarrassed in answering a question about exactly what month he had been in China in relation to the Tiananmen Square protest. But then on guns, on January 6, on Obamacare, on the economy, on blaming everything on the border, back again on healthcare, on abortion, on every issue on substance, JD Vance was very polished and very slick and Tim Walz beat him on all the substantive points. At least that was my take on it.
There are multiple versions of this take flowing throughout the evening: of Vance, the slick, seasoned communicator, and Walz as the “folksy” teacher. Never mind, as Ace of Spades points out, that Walz spent 12 years in Congress and is on his second term as the governor of Minnesota. Of course, Maddow minimizes the damage Walz self-inflicted upon himself with his response to the China question. “I’m a knucklehead” doesn’t factor into Maddow’s calculus.
Then there is Nicolle Wallace, who praised the moderators’ silencing of Vance as he defended himself on the CBP One app, and on the controversial CHNV parole program, which provides a paper-thin factual basis with which the media can affirm that beneficiaries are in the country legally:
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace and Rachel Maddow praise debate moderators, their cutting of Vance's mic pic.twitter.com/J8xyNbjT1J
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 2, 2024
NICOLLE WALLACE: Can I say something about the moderators? We spent a lot of time on it before the debate and they defied whatever- I mean- they did…
CHRIS HAYES: They did great.
WALLACE: They did a great job. And they also used their mic muting power, and I actually think if you’re a woman, that might be the worst moment JD Vance had because he was gonna mansplain right over that mute button. He was…and, again, I don't pretend to know how everyone will react to this. I think that a lot of women in positions of authority that should command respect just by virtue of that dynamic will see themselves and some do, the disrespect of them and talked over. I mean there was a moment like that with then-vice presidential, in the Harris/Pence debate where she said "I'm speaking". And there was this real belief that what he had to say was more important than the debate rules and the moderator.
MADDOW: And to Joy’s point: the substance of that moment was when he was lying about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, again. And Tim Walz had called him out on it. And then he was trying to say, “no, no, no, I am not lying, let me tell you why I am calling them illegal immigrants”, even though they are not illegal immigrants. “Let me mansplain the law to you.” And the moderators at that point not only muted his mic but said, “thank you for explaining the law, it’s not what we’re asking you about.”
This silencing turned out to be the low point of the debate. The moderators simply couldn’t resist interjecting themselves into the debate- in this case, by cutting it off. More specifically, by cutting Vance off as he attempted to correct the record.
Such Regime Media spin and bootlicking so quickly after the debate betrays the extent to which they believe that Vance won. If it weren’t for Regime Media, we’d have none at all.
