Former Harris advisor complains about Walz's 'niceties' towards Vance: 'Why should they vote for you?'

MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend criticized Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., for being too agreeable with his opponent Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, during the vice presidential debate on Tuesday. 

The showdown between Walz and Vance was noticeably cordial throughout the evening, despite their ideological differeances. Sanders-Townsend, who served as chief spokesperson and senior adviser for Vice President Kamala Harris before joining MSNBC in 2022, suggested that if Walz and Vance have so much in common, it’s a mystery why voters wouldn't support the Republican ticket. 

"Debates are about performance, and they are about policy. And why this debate was very important is that there are many Americans out there, not just moderate Republicans, there are base Democratic voters that are saying they want to and need to hear more. Now, I think it is very fair for people to want to criticize those base Democratic voters who say, ‘Well, what more do you need?’ You can do that. But that is their lived reality, and so if you are trying to win their votes, you have to meet them where they are," she said. "There were so many niceties on that debate stage tonight, I am just kind of like, well, if you agree so much with J.D. Vance, why should they vote for you?"

She went on to argue that both candidates were strategically putting on a dishonest performance.

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"I fully believe that Gov. Walz went out there tonight and did what was practiced in debate prep, did what the strategy was that the team put together. That was not the Gov. Walz that we — that I had seen out on the campaign trail. That’s not the Gov.Walz that I had seen during the veepstakes, right?" she said. "That was not the J.D. Vance that I know to be true. I mean, goodness! J.D. Vance was on that stage, he was sorry about Amber Thurman, he was — he was sorry about — he was sorry about a lot of stuff. He — ‘We get things wrong.’ But do you agree with the policy?"

Sanders-Townsend, who also hosts a weekend show on MSNBC, also took aim at the CBS moderators Norah O'Donnell and Margret Brennan. 

"That’s not the Margaret and Norah that I know! Margaret don’t do that on Sunday morning," she said. 

WALZ FORCED TO CORRECT RECORD ON WHETHER HE WAS IN CHINA FOR THE TIANANMEN SQUARE PROTESTS

After the debate, Walz was criticized for coming off as nervous and not as polished as Vance. 

"I think JD Vance strategically went in to do 'Midwestern nice' to disarm Tim Walz. And Tim Walz kind of took the bait so he wasn’t in fighting mode. There were some fact checks he could have done that he dropped the ball on," "The View" host Alyssa Farrah Griffin said.

"Vance was far nimbler than the nervous Tim Walz, especially in the first half of the debate. But as the debate went on, Vance stumbled on two issues — abortion and the 2020 election — where his rhetorical skill could not salvage the very unappealing material he was working with," Josh Barro, author of the newsletter Very Serious, wrote.