JD Vance's debate performance showed his skills at gaslighting

Oh my God! They were just so damn nice to each other.

You might have expected something nice from Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Midwestern Everydad and Vice President Kamala Harris. As a former high school teacher and assistant football coach, the guy is a great guy.

But what the hell was going on with former President Trump's running mate, Ohio Republican Senator JD Vance? Vance has been an attack dog from the moment he was elected Trump's No. 2 candidate and has recently been seen making up racist stories about Haitian immigrants and dog cuisine. Suddenly Vance was full of charm and politeness.

His job in Tuesday's only vice-presidential debate was clearly to smooth Trump's jagged edges and show it to American voters, particularly the coveted bloc of white suburban women JD Vance is not weird! Unfortunately for Walz, Vance understood the brief.

Walz, who was slightly nervous and completely sincere, seemed to be considering a body double.

Vance — who previously supported a nationwide abortion ban, dismissed Democrats as miserable “childless cat ladies,” claimed that people who don't have children are less interested in their country and emphasized that the role of postmenopausal women is to be nurturing Grandchildren – was kinder, gentler and completely insincere.

If you didn't know better — if you hadn't watched his speeches or interviews with bro-ey podcasts — you might not have caught Vance's gaslighting, particularly on the issue of abortion, which has become ballot box kryptonite for Republicans.

While Walz signed a bill making Minnesota the least restrictive state for women seeking abortions, Vance and his party want to ban abortions everywhere. Her position is so unpopular with voters, the majority of whom support women's right to vote, that Vance and Trump have angrily backpedaled. Trump has now repeatedly said he will not sign a national abortion ban, a promise worth as much as a degree from Trump University.

My head nearly fell off when Vance spoke approvingly of the many young women he knew as a child who had abortions “because they felt they had no other choice.” One of those women said she had been watching the debate he. “And she told me … that she felt like if she hadn't had that abortion, it would have destroyed her life because she was in an abusive relationship.”

Let's get this straight: The vice president of the man who said that women who have abortions should be punished and who largely appointed a Supreme Court that overturned the right to abortion and saved the lives of women who actually needed abortions , put on the line, says he understands why abortion rights are so important?

Does he think we all just fell out of a coconut tree?

“We need to do a much better job of regaining the trust of the American people on this issue, when frankly they just don’t trust us,” Vance said. “And I think that’s one of the things that Donald Trump and I are striving for.”

Yes they are. They strive for it pretend They care about women's ability to control their reproductive lives, even though the choices Trump has made are actually killing them.

Vance's shocking hypocrisy gave Walz the opportunity for one of his best moments when he noted that the overturning of Roe v. Wade had left women's lives at the mercy of state legislatures.

“How can we as a nation say that your life and your rights, as fundamental as the right to control your own body, are determined by geography?” asked Walz.

He cited the experience of Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old Georgia mother who died because doctors in Georgia refused to treat her after she took abortion pills and developed an infection.

“There is a very real chance that if Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota, she would still be alive today,” Walz said.

How could Vance disagree? “Amber Thurman should still be alive,” he said solemnly, “and there are a lot of people who should still be alive, and I certainly wish she was.”

Vance was also conciliatory when it came to gun violence. “We have to do better,” said the man who opposes an assault weapons ban and, although he once supported red flag laws, now calls them a “distraction.” His proposed solution is the same old Republican nonsense: “hardening” schools against gunfire and conceptualizing plans to improve mental health treatment.

“Just because you have a mental health problem doesn’t mean you’re violent,” Walz replied. “I think in the end we're looking for a scapegoat. Sometimes it's just the weapons. It’s just the weapons.”

Vance positioned himself as such a sensible, friendly guy (whatever the case). Not strange, okay?), that he avoided denouncing Walz's exaggerations – that he carried weapons “in war” and that he was in Hong Kong during the attack on Tiananmen Square in China. That was a stroke of luck for Walz, who struggled through an explanation of the China discrepancy, citing that he was a “knucklehead” who got “caught up in the rhetoric.”

Vance's deceptions culminated in his response to a question about the 2020 election. He said he had done what Vice President Mike Pence would not have done – namely, refuse to certify the election results, which, as moderator Norah O'Donnell noted, was “unconstitutional and “would have been illegal”. The January 6 insurrectionists responded to Pence's stance by setting up a gallows on the Capitol grounds and threatening to hang him, which Trump thought was a good idea.

“It's really great,” Vance responded, “that Democratic leaders are saying that Donald Trump posed a unique threat to democracy when he peacefully relinquished power on January 20, as we have done in this country for 250 years. “

But Trump hasn't given up anything peacefully. He gathered the mob, roused it, and unleashed it on Congress. Several people died, at least 140 peace officers were injured, and Trump was impeached a second time for his brazen disregard for democracy. He still faces federal and state criminal charges for attempting to overturn the election.

“Did he lose the 2020 election?” Walz asked Trump’s vice president.

“Tim,” the veteran gaslighter replied, “I’m focused on the future.”

@robinkabcarian