Harris vs. Trump: The duel between the number twos begins

Exactly three weeks after the tense debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, it is the turn of Tim Walz and J.D. Vance, their lieutenants, to meet on a television set on Tuesday and to expose their antagonisms.

For the two running mates, this is undoubtedly the most important moment of this ultra-tight campaign, at the end of which only one will become vice-president.

It is also an opportunity for each to fill a real deficit in notoriety, even if the names “Harris Walz” and “Trump Vance” are now systematically attached to election posters.

Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, was little known outside his state when Kamala Harris chose him in August to form the Democratic “ticket” with him.

As for J.D. Vance, an atypical senator with a populist anti-immigration discourse, he had very little political experience before Donald Trump asked him to second him in July.

– At the antipodes –

Twenty years separate the two elected officials — Tim Walz is 60, his rival 40 — in reverse order of the two decades that separate Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

But they are also polar opposites on the major issues of the November 5 election, from abortion to aid to Ukraine, from firearms to energy priorities, from tax measures to the fight against inflation.

Hurricane Helene, which has left more than 130 dead in the United States, could come up in their discussions. “Very bad response to Kamala and Joe's hurricane!” commented Donald Trump.

The CBS Broadcast Center in New York, the venue for the debate between J.D. Vance and Tim Walz, on September 30, 2024 © AFP – ANGELA WEISS

The debate will take place in New York, at the CBS Broadcast Center, the network that is organizing it.

Tim Walz and J.D. Vance will duke it out for 90 minutes, including commercial breaks, with no audience other than the tens of millions of viewers expected. They will not be allowed to bring written notes.

Unlike the two previous presidential debates, which pitted Donald Trump against Joe Biden and then Kamala Harris, the microphones will remain open, allowing opponents to interrupt each other.

Their face-off should be tough, with the aim of convincing undecided voters who could swing one of the famous seven highly contested key states.

The tradition of the debate between vice-presidential candidates dates back to 1976, almost half a century ago. It is intended to allow Americans to assess the ability of those concerned to govern, the vice-president being second in line to the top of power in the United States.

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– “Strange” –

Tim Walz, a former teacher with rural roots, born in Nebraska, and J.D. Vance, who recounted in a best-selling book his difficult childhood in an America scarred by deindustrialization, have already clashed through statements in a campaign with acid rhetoric. Tim Walz was the first to describe the Trump-Vance tandem as “strange”, an expression that has become popular.

J.D. Vance in New York on September 11, 2024 © AFP – Adam GRAY

For his part, J.D. Vance, an anti-establishment elected official with a unique background, having had a career in the military as well as in Silicon Valley, has constantly denounced the record of his rival governor, seeing it as an illustration of a progressive left disconnected from the reality.

Mr Walz, who took part in several school trips to China while he was a teacher, is expected to be asked by his rival to justify past statements that he was in Hong Kong in May 1989 during the bloodily suppressed pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square. Unearthed press clippings place him in Nebraska.

In the history of American presidential elections, it is generally accepted that debates between running mates have relatively little influence on the outcome of the election. But with Donald Trump refusing to face Kamala Harris again, this oratorical joust could be the finale of this campaign.

The Republican billionaire has said that the debate will be “rigged” in favour of Tim Walz, whom he has called a “complete idiot”.

– Dogs and cats –

Tim Walz on September 7 in the American capital Washington © AFP – Allison Bailey

The Democratic Party has planned to project quotes from J.D. Vance, who was a strong critic of the former business tycoon before becoming an ardent Trump supporter, onto the Trump Tower in Manhattan. Among the anthology are “What an idiot!” or “Trump is a coward”.

The fact remains that J.D. Vance is less popular than Tim Walz in the polls.

The Ohio senator is one of the first Republican figures to have relayed the false theory according to which Haitian migrants eat cats and dogs. He had also mocked “childless cat ladies”, a term that shocked many.

According to Jason Miller, a close adviser to Donald Trump, the debate will revolve around Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. “Don't forget that Tim Walz also has to defend Joe Biden's record,” he declared on the Newsmax channel.

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