Earlier than Pete Buttigieg was enjoying JD Vance in debate prep, there was Danny O’Connor.
A neighborhood elected official in Columbus, Ohio, O’Connor assumed the position of Vance in debate prep for then-Rep. Tim Ryan throughout their fierce 2022 Senate race.
In an interview with POLITICO Journal, O’Connor mentioned what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ought to anticipate from Vance on the debate subsequent week — together with his extraordinary self-discipline and a propensity for awkward laughter.
“Usually he’ll snort if one thing is totally true that he must diffuse,” O’Connor mentioned.
With one other presidential debate wanting more and more unlikely, the Oct. 1 vice presidential face-off could be the final main set-piece occasion of the presidential election. That implies that for each Walz and Vance, the stakes of this historically second-tier occasion will probably be even greater.
This dialog has been edited for size and readability.
How did you put together to be Vance in Tim Ryan’s debate prep? How did you attempt to get inside his head?
It was numerous watching what he was saying and his nuanced solutions to particular questions. For Vance, it wasn’t too exhausting, as a result of it was clear that he was being instructed precisely what to say. There’s probably not a lot by way of authentic thought.
The exhausting factor about Vance is there’s one million iterations. He modifies each single election cycle. There’s no honesty there. Even since 2022, he pivots in each approach, form and type for whoever is telling him he must pivot. So the exhausting half about prepping for Vance is that he’s simply one of the dishonest human beings I’ve ever encountered or examine or studied. So everytime you’re prepping for somebody like that, it’s sort of like for those who prep for a sport in soccer, and the opposite crew normally runs the I formation, however they arrive out and run shotgun your entire sport. However with Vance, you’ll be able to sort of determine it out by simply following what Trump’s saying. Or Challenge 2025 is saying.
What are his tics? What are his nervous habits whereas debating?
Effectively, he thinks he is actually intelligent, and we’ve seen that, whether or not it was the awkward Weight-reduction plan Mountain Dew joke he made when he gave at his first solo marketing campaign rally or a complete host of different issues. He thinks he’s the neatest particular person within the room, and he’s simply going to attempt to be sensible and humorous, and it simply doesn’t work, as a result of he’s probably not that humorous or easy.
He’s going to scoff at numerous factors. Walz may make a implausible level about Vance’s file on commerce or labor, or the price of residing households are going through. And Vance will snort it off prefer it’s one thing that actually doesn’t matter and that everybody must be detached about. So he has a exceptional lack of sense of the place voters are and what individuals are searching for out of their leaders.
Are there any surprises or methods that Walz must be looking out for?
Not that I can recall. There wasn’t any smoking gun second or Matlock second, so to talk, the place he ambushed Ryan. It was constant stuff about President [Joe] Biden linking himself to Tim and stuff like that. However Vance goes to be very, very brief on plans, as a result of, as everyone knows, Trump mentioned he had ideas of a plan because it pertains to folks’s well being care within the debate. So I believe that’s what Vance goes to do — discuss usually with out specifics.
You talked about Vance laughing earlier than. Is that his go-to transfer, and the way does that work?
If somebody had been to say, “Senator Vance, you’ve supported a nationwide ban on abortion up to now,” I assure he’ll snort at that and say that’s not true, after which say why he doesn’t assist it. Usually he’ll snort if one thing is totally true that he must defuse.
What’s Vance good at in debates and what ought to Walz be ready for?
He’s disciplined; he’s going to do precisely what he’s instructed. That is the man who’s gotten the place he’s by sort of having a profession of obedience. He’s going to do precisely what he’s instructed to do by the oldsters within the Trump marketing campaign, the oldsters who’re cooking up Challenge 2025, the Heritage Basis, of us like that. And so he’s going to repeat, rinse, repeat what the message is. He’s going to throw out stuff — attacking the vice chairman in a approach that does not actually make any sense, nevertheless it’s stuff that they’ve poll-tested, that they suppose is sensible. So it will likely be an train in dishonesty, however it will likely be constant, and it will likely be disciplined.
