“Black Vote, Black Power,” a collaboration between Keith Boykin and Word In Black, examines the issues, the candidates, and what’s at stake for Black America in the 2024 presidential election. NEW YORK – The most important moment of the vice presidential debate was JD Vance refusing to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Four years later, it shocks me that we have a presidential candidate who not only won’t admit that he lost, but won’t even allow his running mate to admit that he lost.  “Did he lose the 2020 election?” Tim Walz asked “Tim, I focused on the future,” he replied. “That is a damning non-answer,” Walz shot back. It’s also disqualifying. It took until the end of the debate before Walz landed the punch, but that moment undercut everything else Vance thought he had accomplished in rewriting the history of the Trump years. Throughout the night, Vance came across as a smug, robotic, slick, and scripted opportunist who will do or say anything to get ahead, including sane-washing Trump’s toxic rhetoric to make it more palatable for middle America. RELATED: 10 Big Lies Trump and the Republicans Tell About Kamala Harris Tim Walz, the former high school teacher and football coach, was more natural and human and maybe a lot more polite than I would have been, but he did a good job of swatting down Vance’s lies and promoting Kamala Harris’s policies. Although Vance admitted he had said horrible things about Trump in the past, he claimed he just happened to be “wrong” back then and now sees how Trump “delivered” for the American people. The problem is that four years ago, when Trump finished his term in office, Vance admitted that Trump had “so thoroughly failed to deliver” on his promises that he predicted “Trump will probably lose.” And he did. Being wrong and changing your mind is one thing, but Vance previously called Trump “America’s Hitler,” a “moral disaster,” a “cynical asshole,” and “an idiot.”  So how did Vance end up working for “America’s Hitler”? Because he’s an opportunist who will do anything to get ahead. “JD is kissing my ass,” Trump said two years ago. And clearly he was willing to do that tonight.  RELATED: If Trump Wins, Republican Judges Will Rule the Courts—and Our Lives The debate focused on Israel, climate change, immigration, the economy, abortion, gun violence, health care, child care, and democracy, but sadly, there was no real discussion on race issues. That’s too bad because Vance has some ‘splaining to do. He never explained why he spent the past month lying about Haitian immigrants eating their neighbors cats and dogs. Or why he questioned Kamala Harris’s race. Or why he wrongly accused her of faking a Southern accent?  Fortunately, Tim Walz called Vance out for vilifying Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, explaining that Governor Mike DeWine had to send state troopers to escort kindergartners to school because of Trump and Vance’s hateful rhetoric. And when it came to abortion, Walz was very effective when he told the story of Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old Black mother in Georgia who died when doctors would not remove tissue from her uterus because of a Trump abortion ban.  Senator JD Vance, a Republican from Ohio and Republican vice-presidential nominee and Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota and Democratic vice-presidential nominee during the vice presidential debate on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images) Vance, on the other hand, flat out lied when he claimed he “never supported” a nationwide abortion ban. He did, and it’s on the record. Vance tried to blame Kamala Harris for every problem in America, but he conveniently ignored the reality that Kamala Harris is not the president. And he ignored the fact that Trump was president for four years and never solved any of the problems he claimed he would when he first ran for office. But somehow, Vance managed to distort reality by claiming that Harris is promoting censorship when it’s actually the Republican Party that is banning Black books, removing African American history courses, and canceling DEI training. That’s the tricky logic Vance used to sane-wash Trump and the Republicans into an unrecognizably inoffensive imitation of who they really are. He even claimed that Trump “peacefully gave over power” in 2021, as if the violent January 6th insurrection had never really happened. If you weren’t familiar with politics or haven’t been watching the news lately, you might think that Vance was a part of a typical Republican ticket with a Mitt Romney or a John McCain as his running mate. But his running mate is twice impeached, convicted felon, insurrectionist Donald Trump. JD Vance is a fast-talking Yale Law School graduate, bestselling author, and venture capitalist with a lot of experience communicating but barely more than one year of experience in government. No matter how many slick words he used in his debate, he can’t hide from the truth that his boss, Donald Trump, is unfit for office. Keith Boykin is a New York Times–bestselling author, TV and film producer, and former CNN political commentator. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Keith served in the White House, cofounded the National Black Justice Coalition, cohosted the BET talk show My Two Cents, and taught at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York. He’s a Lambda Literary Award-winning author and editor of seven books. He lives in Los Angeles. The post How Tim Walz Finally Stopped JD Vance From Sane-Washing Trump  appeared first on Word In Black. The post How Tim Walz Finally Stopped JD Vance From Sane-Washing Trump  appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.