Gov. Tim Walz wasn’t the only Minnesotan who played a role in last Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate.
U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., helped coach U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, on how to go up against Minnesota’s governor.
“My whole team spent a month going through every debate Walz has done in the last 20 years, and my job was to play Walz (in debate prep),” House Majority Whip Emmer told the St. Cloud Times.
Emmer said Walz does a good job telling stories when he speaks, explaining this intel played a crucial role in the debate as Vance focused on making a personalized introduction while also talking policy when preparing.
“Mainstream media outlets have done (Vance) a terrible disservice by trying to paint him as … this unlikable closed character that … has these really awful opinions about different topics of the day,” Emmer said. “As people saw on Tuesday night, this is a smart, thoughtful, compassionate guy. Frankly, I think he had the opportunity for 90 minutes to introduce himself to the American public.”
Helping shape JD Vance’s win
Vance came under fire earlier this election cycle when his friend, Sofia Nelson, from Yale Law School released letters and texts between the two. Nelson, who is a transgender public defender in Detroit, said the Republican vice presidential candidate has gone toward the right-wing extremes, something he allegedly didn’t align with back in New Haven.
JD Vance 2.0: GOP vice presidential nominee leans into ‘Midwest nice’
Nelson told The New York Times and NPR journalists that Vance would have constructive conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity and was accepting toward his friends in the LGBTQ+ community. Since then, Vance voiced opposition to the Respect for Marriage Act that would federally protect same-sex couples and introduced a bill to place “X” gender markers on U.S. passports.
‘I actually played a better Walz than Walz did’
Emmer’s work preparing Vance was successful as the senator was described as “a poised, articulate messenger of Trump’s agenda.” His performance was reported as a win by USA TODAY while Walz took a loss, citing the governor’s verbal stumbles and nervous appearance.
“Many of the Vance people say I actually played a better Walz than Walz did on Tuesday,” Emmer said.
Corey Schmidt covers politics and courts for the St. Cloud Times. He can be reached at cschmidt@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: JD Vance’s secret debate weapon: Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
