CNN’s Abby Phillip criticizes Walz for lack of preparation for debate

CNN’s Abby Phillip criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) for what she described as an apparent lack of preparation for Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate.

“I think we shouldn’t lose sight even in the [ability] that JD Vance came to this debate to land a bunch of punches, and he did. He landed a lot of punches. And Tim Walz didn’t seem prepared for it,” she said of Walz. “He did not respond to the criticisms and attacks Vance put on the table. He allowed some clear falsehoods. … I mean, I think there was a clear lack of preparation and execution here on Walz’s part.

“I think actually it‘s the opposite,” CNN anchor Dana Bash interjected, saying Walz had “so many lines that he was clearly trying to say that he didn‘t listen”

“And when JD Vance said one of the many, many things he really hit Kamala Harris on, not Tim Walz but Kamala Harris, he didn‘t respond because he clearly had things in his mind,” Bash continued. “I think the lack of interviews that he has done with national media, with local media, it showed he needed more reps.”

Walz and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) traded barbs on immigration, the economy and foreign policy during Tuesday night’s debate, though much of the event took a more civil tone than the two presidential debates earlier this year.

In one particularly tense moment, CBS moderator Norah O’Donnell cut the mics of both candidates after Vance criticized a real-time fact check co-moderator Margaret Brennan offered to a comment he made on migrants in Springfield, Ohio.