Behind the Curtain: Vance's "Minnesota nice" ploy
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JD Vance (left) and Tim Walz after Tuesday's debate at the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan. Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) went into the vice-presidential debate with a plan to surprise Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz by being shockingly ... super-duper nice.
Why it matters: It worked. The result was a refreshingly substantive, even cheery debate — a flashback to a less polarized America, and a preview of what's possible if the nation's current rage subsides. But it was a premeditated political maneuver to rattle Walz.
Walz was girded for war against Vance, who has spent the past 10 weeks defending past controversial remarks.
- Instead, Vance greeted Walz with a big smile, and the two shook hands warmly right off the bat. It set a very different tone than the icy encounter between the top-of-the-ticket nominees, Vice President Harris and former President Trump, when they debated last month.
Inside the strategy: "We figured it would throw him off," a close Vance adviser told us. "Democrats and much of the media bought their own false caricature of JD that he was just some heartless fire-breather."
- Vance's approach was jarring compared to his attack-dog role on the campaign trail, where he said in August that Harris "can go to hell" for her criticism of a visit by Trump to Arlington National Cemetery.
"We had an intentional strategy of not being overly adversarial and aggressive and jumping down Walz's throat on every little thing," the Vance adviser added.
- "It looks petty. ... Fundamentally, no one gives a s--t about the VPs. JD knew instinctively that what would actually move the ball forward is creating the contrast between Trump's successes and Kamala's failures."
Vance played into Walz's "Minnesota nice" streak. So rather than attack, Walz reverted to the folksiness that caught Harris' eye during veepstakes.
- Asked whether Walz was surprised, one of his aides told us: "We expected more MAGA mode given what [Vance has] been saying repeatedly on the stump."
- "The 'MN nice' dynamic played out more surprisingly and organically onstage than strategically, in a way maybe neither candidate expected," the Walz aide added. "It's harder to criticize the other when talking about their kids."
Behind the scenes: Walz had the more elaborate debate prep. His campaign built a replica stage, complete with cameras, at his debate camp in Harbor Springs, Michigan, on the north shore of Lake Michigan's Little Traverse Bay. Transportation Secretary Peter Buttigieg played Vance.
- Vance honed his debate tone during a formal mock session near his home in Cincinnati, with a Minnesotan — House Republican Whip Tom Emmer — playing Walz. The Vance team set up podiums and mics, with former anchor and Trump Treasury official Monica Crowley playing moderator.
The Vance camp lost power in a storm during the mock debate — but continued by using cellphones for timers and lanterns for light.
How it happened: During the debate, which drew 43 million viewers (compared to 67 million for the Harris-Trump debate), Vance said to Walz about the border: "I actually think I agree with you. I think you want to solve this problem, but I don't think that Kamala Harris does."
- Walz replied to Vance about bringing jobs back to the U.S.: "Much of what the senator said right there, I'm in agreement with him on this."
- And so it went.
Between the lines: "JD's focus on bipartisanship was intentional, because we knew it was a side of JD that the media has largely ignored," the Vance adviser told us.
- "The goal was to disarm the 'he's an extremist' B.S. by positioning him in the populist center. Democrats may have mindf---ed themselves into believing the caricature they invented."
The other side: The debate's civility also worked for Walz. Jen Psaki said on MSNBC's postgame show that it's been a mistake by the campaign to let Walz do so few interviews.
- "Coming out of it, I hope that they free Tim Walz," Psaki said. "Let him be rusty at times and make mistakes, and hug football players, and cry and be funny sometimes. That's the magic. That's why he's on the ticket."
The Harris-Walz campaign on Wednesday announced a "Walz blitz" of aggressive post-debate travel — including rallies, voter-engagement events, fundraisers and interviews.
- Walz is taping "60 Minutes" to air Monday, and will make his late-night debut on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Monday in L.A.
Reality check: Vance made a play for moderates at the debate — after recently tripling down on debunked claims of Haitian migrants eating pets in the weeks prior to the debate.
- Vance was back in his MAGA element on Wednesday, mocking Walz's debate gaffe that he had "become friends with school shooters." In Michigan, Vance called that "probably only the third or fourth dumbest comment Tim Walz made that night."
- Vance again refused, as he had during the debate, to say former President Trump lost in 2020.
"JD was very mindful about tying policy back to his own personal bio," the adviser told us. "Which is why you saw him lead with [his life story] in the first question he got, his closing remarks and multiple questions throughout — we wanted him to show off both his brain and his heart."
