Fox News’ Jesse Watters didn’t even bother focusing on JD Vance’s rhetorical performance during Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate against Tim Walz, instead narrowing his focus on a sole topic: his looks.
“He looked beautiful tonight,” Watters told a Fox News’ panel after the debate ended. “He looked humble. He looked earnest, sharp—20 years younger than Walz.”
Watters’ comments were part of a flood of praise from Fox personalities over Vance’s performance on Tuesday, which has garnered praise over his composure compared to some of Walz’s verbal gaffes on befriending school shooters and acknowledging he was a “knucklehead” for his comments on being in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre.
“I don’t think I have ever seen a Republican so deftly maneuver what was smug and arrogant bias on the part of those moderators. Almost every question was designed to make Republicans look bad with views on child care,” opinion host Laura Ingraham said. “And yet Vance seemed to take it all in his stride and, with most questions, really showed us his humanity and also his knowledge of the issues. I don’t think he could’ve done better under the circumstances I think that’s very reassuring to the public.”
Dana Perino agreed: “You can understand why the Democrats spent the entire week trying to lower expectations for Walz. The only problem is for Democrats, they underperformed because the expectation should have been even lower than that.”
Though Watters did concede that, despite Walz’s stumbles, Republicans couldn’t completely rule the Kamala Harris campaign out.
“Walz didn’t have a terrible night,” he said. “He didn’t screw up that badly. He had a few moments but I’m sure Democrats are kind of pleased with it. No blood drawn, but in a tight race like that, I think JD performed well.”
