Jones: Tuesday’s VP debate might not matter … except for one moment

In the grand scheme of things, Tuesday night’s vice president debate likely won’t move the needle in this presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Vice presidential debates rarely do.

Perhaps the most famous moment in VP debate history was in 1988 when 41-year-old Republican Sen. Dan Quayle, defending his political experience, said, “I have as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency.”

Quayle’s opponent, Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, said, “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”

It might have been the biggest bodyslam in VP debate history.

And what happened a month later? Quayle’s running mate, George H.W. Bush, crushed Michael Dukakis to become president.

So when you look back at Tuesday’s debate between Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz, there were a few memorable moments, but nothing really viral that could have a lasting impact.

Well, except for maybe one moment. I’m not saying it’s a game-changer, but it will be a major talking point until the first Tuesday in November.

Near the end of the debate, the topic of democracy came up. Specifically, Trump’s refusal to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. Vance was asked if he would challenge the results of the election.

He danced around the topic and then was challenged by Walz, who brought up the Jan. 6 insurrection.

That led Vance to say at one point, “It’s really rich for Democratic leaders to say that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy when he peacefully gave over power on January the 20th, as we have done for 250 years in this country.”

You could feel antennas going up all over the country, especially within the Harris campaign. You could almost hear the Harris camp saying, “Did Vance just say Trump peacefully gave over power after he lost the election?”

Walz seized on it, too, asking Vance, “This was a threat to our democracy in a way that we had not seen. And it manifested itself because of Donald Trump’s inability to say — he is still saying he didn’t lose the election. I would just ask that. Did he lose the 2020 election?”

Vance said, “Tim, I’m focused on the future. Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 COVID situation?”

Walz fired back, “That is a damning nonanswer.”

One could go back and forth about who won the debate, and if Vance actually had a pretty good night. But this was, no doubt, Vance’s worst and most cringeworthy moment.

A little after midnight, MSNBC host Jen Psaki, who was once Biden’s press secretary, tweeted, “Just got a text from a senior Harris-Walz campaign aide that they are already cutting that final exchange on January 6th and Vance refusing to say who won the election into an ad.”

Within hours on Wednesday morning, that ad was already posted on social media. Watch it here.

Again, nothing in history suggests that anything that happened in Tuesday’s debate will have a lasting effect when most voters fill out their ballots.

But …

If there was a moment, and the latest Democratic ad thinks there was, this was it. Just based on Walz’s public appearances on Wednesday, look for Democrats to continue driving this point home in the month before Election Day.

Editor’s note: Tom Jones is senior media writer for the Poynter Institute. This commentary was posted on Poynter.org and was distributed via the Poynter Report newsletter. Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.