Ann Coulter spent much of Tuesday’s debate positively fawning over JD Vance—even to the extent of seemingly posting about Donald Trump’s death.
“WOW, VANCE IS GOOD. Cool as a cucumber,” the veteran conservative pundit wrote on X just ten minutes into the vice presidential showdown on CBS, adding in an apparent reference to Trump’s age: “What’s the life expectancy for a 78 YO man?”
She later retweeted a post from another account that’d suggested there’s a “high probability [Vance] will be POTUS in our lifetimes,” and went into a complete tailspin after moderators cut him off in the middle of an anti-immigration diatribe.
While railing against Democratic candidate Tim Walz as a “bumbling fool,” Coulter was impressed enough by Vance’s performance to write: “Trump should agree to a second debate if he can send in Vance.”
In fairness, Coulter wasn’t alone in lavishing praise on Trump’s running mate. “He looked beautiful tonight,” Jesse Watters cooed on Fox News. “He looked humble. He looked earnest, sharp—20 years younger than Walz.”
While Vance was briefly seen to stumble over his talking points on abortion and provide an opening for Walz to attack him over his stance on the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, Walz’s nerves appeared to have largely got the better of him at times, with flash polls suggesting the Republican had just about edged it over his opponent.
Widely noted for its relative civility, Tuesday’s debate stood in stark contrast to the bitter face-off that went down between Trump and Harris on September 10—when Harris repeatedly goaded Trump away from his talking points into a performance even some Republicans conceded as a disaster for their candidate.
Though Trump has subsequently, and with characteristic confidence, shunned polling evidence to declare himself the victor of that debate, his camp has since spurned any prospects of a second showdown, even on friendly soil, while also lately backing him out of a much-anticipated sit-down interview with 60 Minutes, according to CBS News. Trump’s campaign denied the interview had ever been “locked in.”
His reluctance to debate again didn’t stop the Republican nominee pitching in from the sidelines on Tuesday night, however, with Trump dubbing the Democratic VP pick “Tampon Tim” in an insult-laden posting spree on Truth Social as the broadcast wore on.
