CNN anchor Abby Phillip slammed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for the Democrat’s “clear lack of preparation and execution” during Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate.
The primetime host didn’t pull any punches as fellow CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash praised Walz and GOP counterpart Sen. JD Vance for their “civility” toward one another — a contrast to the combative debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump last month.
Phillip interrupted their discussion to call out Walz.
“I think we shouldn’t lose track, I think even in the civility, of the fact that JD Vance came to this debate to land a bunch of punches and he did,” Phillip said.
“He landed a lot of punches and — between all the niceties and all of that — and the thing that really stood out to me was that Tim Walz did not seem prepared for it.”
Vance edged out Walz in post-debate snap polls.
About 42% of debate watchers said Vance won, while 41% sided with Walz, according to a CBS poll.
The New York Times asked 13 of its columnists and contributors to assess the debate in an opinion piece. Nine said Vance won the debate, while two gave the nod to Walz and two others said there was no winner.
Phillip blamed Walz’s lackluster performance on his inability to swiftly fact-check Vance.
“He didn’t respond to a lot of the criticisms and attacks that Vance put on the table. He allowed some clear falsehoods to just go completely unanswered,” Phillip said.
“He allowed JD Vance, essentially, to dodge on a whole host of issues — on climate change, on the issue of his flip-flopping on Donald Trump.”
Phillip singled out Walz’s rebuttal to Vance’s defense of Trump’s approach to the Affordable Care Act.
“It took him several sentences to get to the part of his answer, Walz’s answer, where he actually responded to that,” Phillip said. “I mean, I think there was a clear lack of preparation and execution here on Walz’s part.”
Bash — who conducted the first network interview given by Harris, with Walz in tow, five weeks after President Biden was pushed off the ticket — disagreed with her colleague.
“I think, actually, it’s the opposite,” Bash argued. “I think he had too much preparation.”
Bash argued that Walz’s poor debate performance could be attributed to overpreparation and mixing up prepared “lines” while he was trying to respond.
“He had so many lines that he was clearly trying to say that he didn’t listen when JD Vance said one of the many, many things he really hit Kamala Harris on,” Bash said. “He didn’t respond because he clearly had things in his mind.”
Bash said “the lack of interviews that he has done with national media, with local media” also contributed to Walz’s lackluster debate showing and proved “he needed more reps.”
