Tim Ryan and J.D. Vance trade insults in their second and final debate of Ohio’s U.S. Senate race.
The Lima News
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tim Ryan and J.D. Vance recycled a lot of the same material, but showed considerably more personal contempt for each other during the second and final debate of Ohio’s U.S. Senate race on Monday night.
During the debate in Youngstown hosted by WMFJ-TV, a local TV station, moderators drew out some new information from the two candidates, namely pressing Vance to spell out what exemptions he may support in any new laws restricting abortion.
Vance, who has described himself as “100% pro-life,” and whose campaign says he only supports a “life of the mother” exemption for abortion, was reluctant to do so. He said spelling out his pro-life principles is more useful for voters.
“I know people who have been pro-life since before I was born. And one of the things they will tell you is they support an exception in the case of incest … but an incest exception looks different at three weeks of pregnancy versus 39 weeks of pregnancy,” Vance said. “So I actually don’t think that you can say on a debate stage, every single thing that you’re going to vote for when it comes to an abortion piece of legislation.”
But the debate largely was dominated by the candidates trying out new attacks and arguing with each other.
During the debate, Ryan referenced a decision from Vance’s campaign last week to cancel a fundraiser at the house of a doctor who court records said is a top prescriber of opioid painkillers. The campaign canceled the fundraiser in response to an imminent story from Spectrum News.
“The press broke the story, and he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar,” Ryan said.
And Vance referenced Ryan’s past support for ending cash bail for criminal defendants during his 2019 presidential campaign. The attack is part of an ongoing theme of painting Ryan and other Democrats as being soft on crime in the aftermath of the widespread social unrest of 2020 following the murder by police of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“Ending cash bail is on the far left of his own party, and it’s the very sort of thing that makes our streets less safe,” Vance said.
During the early innings of the debate, moderators at WFMJ-TV in Youngstown asked Vance about comments ex-President Donald Trump made at a rally in Youngstown last month in which he said Vance was “kissing his ass” to get his political support.
Vance responded that he thought Trump was joking, and said Ryan had said on TV that he “loves” Nancy Pelosi, referencing an interview in which Ryan was talking about his decision to challenge Pelosi for leadership of the party following the November 2016 election. Vance has spliced the clip into his TV ads as he points out Ryan’s record of voting in lock-step with Democrats during President Joe Biden’s tenure in office.
“This guy goes on national TV and says ‘I love Nancy Pelosi,’ and has the audacity of accusing me of kissing anybody’s rear end. It’s pretty rich,” Vance said.
“I ran against Nancy Pelosi for leadership,” Ryan said. “These leaders in D.C. will eat you up like a chew toy. You were calling Trump America’s Hitler.”
The “America’s Hitler” comment was a reference to a 2016 private text message Vance sent to a former law school classmate that emerged during the Republican primary. Vance, who at the time was a prominent anti-Trump Republican, since has since become a Trump supporter.
“That’s not true,” Vance interjected.
“It is true. And then you kissed his ass. And then he endorsed you. And you said he’s the greatest president of all time,” Ryan said.
Ryan and Vance are running to replace Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who is retiring. The election will be held on Nov. 8, and early voting in Ohio began last week. The race is widely viewed as competitive.
