Second, party and candidate platforms are usually debated in more detail than during a presidential debate. They’re supposed to be more substantive with fewer fireworks and more specifics. This allows the VP candidates to attempt to serve their third purpose which is to attack the opponents’ presidential candidate while propping up their own presidential candidate.

Last night’s CBS News debate exemplified all three purposes. The lone deviation was the moderators who once again inserted themselves into the debate by carrying water for Democrat Tim Walz while trying to discredit Republican J.D. Vance. At times, moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan were insufferable.

Here are six key takeaways for those who didn’t watch as well as for those who did watch and might have missed a few details.

Vance’s Debate Skills in 43-Seconds

The “Whac-a-Mole” moment during the debate checked all the boxed. In 43-seconds, Vance attacked his opponent, attacked Kamala Harris, promoted Donald Trump, and added a personal anecdote on top.

This is the best 43-second answer in a debate that I have listened to in my lifetime.
J.D. Vance was a brilliant choice.#VPDebate2024 pic.twitter.com/6dHEkEjNjZ

— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) October 2, 2024

This will be a moment that future debaters analyze while preparing their own candidates.

Vance Dominated the Optics Battle

To fulfill the first goal of the debate, Vance presented himself to the American people as intelligent, confident, and well prepared. He handled the “gotcha” attacks from both Walz and the moderators with the precision of a highly skilled debater with only a few missteps on messaging.

In contrast, Walz came across as a buffoon. His first answer started off very rocky as he was conspicuously nervous, tripping over words and bouncing around different talking points. At one point he even noted that he can be a “knucklehead” sometimes.

Words aside, Vance looked great and Walz did not. As Jack Posobiec noted on X:

The entire debate summed up: pic.twitter.com/IZR9UCy4mg

— Jack Poso (@JackPosobiec) October 2, 2024

Scarlett Johnson reiterated the point:

My daughters think Vance is “hot.”

My husband says he's never heard conservatism explained in such a relatable and common-sense way.

I think Vance SLAYED. pic.twitter.com/dpSTNkjPQE

— Scarlett Johnson (@scarlett4kids) October 2, 2024

Throughout the debate, Vance presented himself as presidential and a man Americans could follow while Walz came across as the bumbling uncle families don’t look forward to hearing from on Thanksgiving.

Walz Bombed the One Tough Question He Was Asked

The only thing the debate moderators did fairly the entire night was to ask Walz about his bald-faced lie on being there during the Tiananmen Square massacre. It didn’t go well.

Tim Walz just admitted he is a LIAR on national TV

It is the single most awkward moment in American debate history

Just watch… pic.twitter.com/HWTBhBv8Rq

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 2, 2024

As bad as Walz’ response was, it’s hard to imagine any way this guy could have answered the question without looking awful. He took a bad circumstance and sprinkled moronic all over it.

Trust the Experts?

There was a moment in the debate that may not get as much attention from pundits as other exchanges but the viewers noticed. Many were likely nodding their heads unconsciously as Vance gave a brief history lesson about “the experts.”

WATCH: J.D. Vance decimates Tim Walz with a series of brutal fact checks.

“Governor, you say trust the experts, but those same experts for 40 years said that if we shipped our manufacturing base off to China, we'd get cheaper goods. They lied about that.”

“They said if we… pic.twitter.com/cZ810urWYD

— The Vigilant Fox (@VigilantFox) October 2, 2024

Of all the moments in the debate, this is the one that will stick in the back of people’s minds long after the election.

Tim Said What?

It was brief, but voters who noticed what Walz said about school shooters may have questions.

Yes, Walz said he had become friends with school shooters. He likely meant he had become friends with school shooting victims and their families, but unfortunately for him anyone who heard his actual words won’t forget them.

Even CNN Thinks Walz Stunk It Up

Unprepared? Overprepared? Outmatched? Whatever narrative corporate media tries to spin for Walz, the fact that they aren’t out there praising Walz the way they fawned over Kamala Harris after her debate is telling.

BREAKING: CNN admits Tim Walz lost the debate pic.twitter.com/VrHrNzrNKT

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 2, 2024

They might as well have just said he was a buffoon and moved on. They’re not going to dwell on this debate very long. They’ll move on as quickly as possible, sweeping it under the rug while drastically reducing coverage of Walz going forward.

The Verdict Is Obvious

This may have been the most lopsided VP debate in modern history. And to be clear, Walz did far better than many expected. But Vance was dominant even though he missed a handful of opportunities.

It’s conspicuous that he didn’t bring up the lawfare against his running mate, even when Walz gave him the perfect opening by highlighting how Trump talks about locking up both Hillary Clinton and Harris.

It was a no-good, awful night for Walz and very few expected otherwise.

A sworn statement by an ABC News whistleblower exposing network bias favoring Harris continues to be in focus regarding “assurances” to the Democrat’s campaign days before the event.

Now David Muir, anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight” and co-moderator of the debate, is defending his performance during the matchup, as ratings for his evening news broadcast have plunged some 12% in the aftermath.

Note the date of the tweet below, almost a week before the debate. ABC gave Kamala Harris assurances that she would be favored in the debate on Sept 10. The ABC whistleblower confirmed this in a sworn affidavit the day before the debate. The ABC presidential debate was rigged in… https://t.co/7v9ffkfPJH

— WorldNetDaily (@worldnetdaily) September 17, 2024

“ABC News has offered assurances to the Harris campaign that if there is significant cross talk between Harris and Trump, the network may choose to turn on the mics so that the public can understand what is happening, the moderator would discourage either candidate from interrupting constantly and the moderator would also work to explain to viewers what is being said, according to the source familiar,” CNN reported.

ABC News insists it did not break debate rules, initially stating: “ABC News followed the debate rules that both campaigns agreed on and which clearly state: No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.”

A network spokesperson later told the Daily Beast: “Absolutely not. Harris was not given any questions before the date.”

The X account that posted the purported affidavit, @DocNetyoutube, reacted to ABC’s denial, stating:

Yesterday, ABC made a statement regarding the whistleblower affidavit. The only thing ABC said was that they did not give the questions or the topics to the Harris campaign. Well, nobody accused ABC of doing that. ABC has been accused of the following:

1.) Giving the Harris campaign sample questions, similar to the actual questions that would be used for the debate.
2.) Agreeing to give Harris a smaller podium and other arrangements to minimize the size differential between Harris and Trump.
3.) Fact Checking would be done for Donald Trump and NOT Kamala Harris
4.) Harris campaign gave questions to ABC that were not to be included in the debate. Including questions regarding her time as DA in SF and her time as California Attorney General.

Out of all these accusations, the fact checking of Trump has been admitted to. The podium and split screen appearance to keep the height differential have already been proven, ABC did NOT deny communications with the Harris campaign without the Trump campaign being present and they will never deny that because they cannot. According to the whistleblower, ABC executives made numerous phone calls with the Harris campaign without including the Trump campaign on the call. Everything the whistleblower has submitted has been proven except for sample questions. There will be another tweet later today announcing action to be taken against ABC and the affiliates of ABC.

As WND reported Sunday, Sept. 15, an ABC News whistleblower released an affidavit punishable by perjury specifying allegations that the network made numerous assurances to the Harris campaign to favor the Democratic nominee for president.

ABC whistleblower affidavit has been released by @DocNetyoutube this morning. It alleges as a sworn statement under penalty of perjury that ABC coordinated with the Harris campaign to give her sample questions, assurances that Trump would be fact checked and Kamala would not, and… pic.twitter.com/DNyI2clpvS

— WorldNetDaily (@worldnetdaily) September 15, 2024

The sworn statement indicated: “It was agreed that Donald Trump would be subjected to fact-checking during the debate, while Kamala Harris would not comparable scrutiny. This was widely known throughout the company that Donald Trump would be fact-checked. In fact, various people were assigned to fact check observations it was perceived candidate Trump would make during the debate.

“In fact, [the] Harris campaign required assurances that Donald Trump would be fact checked. This was done via multiple communications with the Harris campaign whereas the Trump campaign was not included in the negotiations. To my understanding, any rules negotiations and conversations pertaining to the debate should have had both the Trump and Harris campaign involved, the Harris campaign had numerous more calls regarding the debate rules without the Trump campaign aware or on the call.”

The statement also says: “The Harris campaign was provided with sample questions that, while not the exact questions, covered similar topics that would appear during the debate.”

“Furthermore, the Harris campaign imposed serious restrictions on the scope of questioning, including:

• No questions regarding the perceived health of President Joe Biden.
• No inquires regarding her tenure as attorney general in San Francisco.
• No questions concerning her brother-in-law, Tony West, who faces allegations of embezzling billions of dollars in taxpayer funds and who may be involved in her administration if elected.

The whistleblower claims to have “observed a pronounced bias against Donald Trump within ABC News. Employees expressing favorable views towards him experience significant concerns about potential retribution.”

On Tuesday, Muir called the controversy over ABC’s performance “just noise.”

“All of the noise that you hear afterward about you know, ‘Which candidate won the debate, did the moderators win or lose?’” Muir told the audience on ABC’s “Live With Kelly and Mark.”

“That’s just noise. You all know that. The most important thing to remember is you all have the power.”

He said it was the “duty” of him and co-moderator Linsey Davis to discuss issues of importance to Americans, mentioning their inquiries about the border crisis, economy, reproductive rights, Afghanistan and the peaceful transfer of power.

“These are all really important issues, the issues of our time, really, and I always say as a moderator, what the candidates decide to do with that time – you can ask the questions, but they’ll answer with whatever they choose to answer with, and you have to be ready for whatever might come your way, even the most unexpected of moments,” Muir said.

ABC's David Muir says that the controversy surrounding his historically awful moderation of the presidential debate is "just noise."

Well his ratings are DOWN 12% following the debate. Less people are listening to his nightly noise now. Good! pic.twitter.com/XBH6KPLxni

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 17, 2024

Muir’s appearance on Tuesday’s talk show was perhaps prompted by a 12% drop in ratings for his nightly news broadcast since the debate.

Fox News reports: “Muir’s ‘World News Tonight’ averaged 6.7 million viewers on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the three episodes following the debate, after averaging 7.6 million in 2024 leading up to the debate.

“The 12% drop in viewers for ‘World News Tonight’ is more significant than slight declines ‘CBS Evening News’ and ‘NBC Nightly News’ saw when comparing the three episodes following ABC’s debate to the year-to-date totals, although Muir’s newscast remained the No. 1 broadcast evening newscast.”

ABC News fact-checked Trump at least five times during the Sept 10 debate, but preferred not a single fact-check for Harris.

Davis told the Los Angeles Times last week that her intense fact-checking of Trump was influenced by the June 27 debate on CNN that prompted President Joe Biden to exit the 2024 race.

“People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators,” Davis told the paper.

On Sunday, five days after the debate, Martha Raddatz of ABC News finally admitted Harris was wrong when she said during the debate there is “not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world.”

“Our fact-checkers found that to be false,” Raddatz said.

“There are currently 900 U.S. military personnel in Syria, 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq. All have been under regular threat from drones and missiles for months. We also have action in the Red Sea,” Raddatz added. “Also, every single day, the Navy SEALs, Delta Forces special operators can be part of any sort of deadly raid.”

Neither Muir nor Davis alerted their 70 million debate viewers to the egregious falsehood by Harris.

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The Disney-owned network’s broadcast news program hosted by Muir that airs at 6:30 p.m. EDT drew an average of 7.6 million viewers before the September 10 debate, but only drew an average of 6.7 million viewers in the three days after the debate, according to Fox News. Muir and Davis, who hosts the program on weekends, were criticized for making so-called “fact checks” on Trump more often than Harris during the event, even though Harris made false statements about Trump’s position on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other issues.

Davis said their decision to be more proactive in fact-checking Trump stemmed from the June 27 debate hosted by CNN between the former president and President Joe Biden.

ABC's David Muir says that the controversy surrounding his historically awful moderation of the presidential debate is "just noise."

Well his ratings are DOWN 12% following the debate. Less people are listening to his nightly noise now. Good! pic.twitter.com/XBH6KPLxni

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 17, 2024

“People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators,” Davis said during a Sept. 11 interview with the Los Angeles Times.

Trump later said he “lost a bit of respect” for Muir after the debate.

“It was so … one-sided,” he told Fox News. “It was one against three.”

Conservatives agreed with the former president, saying the debate was rigged against Trump, with the former president having to not only contend with Harris, but also Muir and Davis. At one point during the debate, Davis asked Harris about changes in positions on policy issues, but did not press the vice president when Harris discussed “values” instead of responding to the question.

ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz noted Sunday that Harris had misstated facts about American troops being in harm’s way during the debate, something Muir and Davis didn’t do during the debate, Fox News reported.

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