When Vance ‘fact-checked’ the CBS fact checkers, ‘Since you’re fact-checking me…’
Things got a bit heated in the classic passive-aggressive way they could on the professional platform when Senator JD Vance went up against one of the CBS News moderators during the first and last vice presidential debate ahead of the November 5 elections.
Senator JD Vance, a Republican from Ohio and Republican vice-presidential nominee, speaks with Sean Hannity, host of the Sean Hannity Show, not pictured, in the spin room following the first vice presidential debate at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Bloomberg)
The American news network cut out both the candidates’ microphones during the initial moments of the VP showdown as the 40-year-old Republican vice presidential candidate sparred with Margaret Brennan over a fact-checking clash.
Channelling Donald Trump’s previous remarks about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, Vance doubled down on the issue, but Brennan rebutted him midway, saying, “Just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status or temporary protected status.”
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JD Vance counters CBS News’ fact-check
Not taking the intervention lightly, Vance pushed back and spoke over the moderators to counter him being fact-checked unfairly. He accused the ‘Face the Nation’ host of violating the network’s rules for the debate: “The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check, and since you’re fact-checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on.”
As Brennan tried to move on to a different subject, Vance stood back. “So there’s an application called the CBP One app where you can go on and apply for asylum or apply for parole and be granted legal status at the wave of a Kamala Harris open border wand.”
He continued, “That is not a person coming in applying for a green card and waiting for 10 years.”
JD Vance and Tim Walz’s mics were cut off
Brennan again tried to move the conversation further. However, then, Harris’ running mate Tim Walz chimed in. “Those laws have been on the books since 1990.”
Vance contested, “That CBP One app has not been on the books since 1990…” he couldn’t complete his train of thought as his mic had been cut off. CBS News also served Walz with the same treatment.
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Brennan eventually informed the rivalling VP nominees that their mics had been cut. “We have so much we want to get to. Thank you for explaining the legal process.” The debate rules laid out ahead of the October 1 clash stated that the candidates’ mics would remain on by default. However, the network had the right to mute them if things slipped out of control.
Vance hit back at Kamala Harris’ ‘open border’
Before sparring against the debate moderator, Vance spoke of “overwhelmed” schools and hospitals and “unaffordable” housing in communities across the country, particularly Springfield. He emphasised how it boiled down to the country bringing in “millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans.”
Furthering his response on the immigration issue, the GOP vice presidential candidate went on to target sitting VP Kamala Harris. “The people that I’m most worried about in Springfield, Ohio, are the American citizens who have had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’ open border.”