JD Vance explains viral reaction during debate after being compared to meme from The Office

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Vice Presidential contender JD Vance is opening up about that viral debate look in his first interview since he went head-to-head with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Tuesday.

Vance, the junior Republican senator from Ohio, and Walz, Democratic governor of Minnesota, debated each other in what is likely to be the last match-off before election day. Poll watchers declared the event essentially a tie. According to a CBS News poll, 42 percent of debate watchers said Vance won the debate, while 41 percent thought Walz emerged as the winner.

Overall, debate watchers thought the tone of the debate was positive. Seventeen percent called the debate a tie.

Speaking on the Ruthless Podcast, Vance said he wasn’t sure how he did during the event until it was over.

“You don’t really know when you’re doing this, your adrenaline is going, you’re trying not to say anything stupid. You don’t actually know how it’s going really,” Former President Donald Trump’s running mate said.

“But my wife comes out at the very end, just sort of like this one final, you know, segment for the TV cameras. Gwen Walz comes up, my wife comes up, and I look at Usha’s face and I just knew.

“Usha doesn’t lie to me and her face especially doesn’t lie to me and I knew that minute that we had had a very good debate.”

Vance addressed a snapshot of him from the event that’s now gone viral. In one moment, he’s seen looking into the TV cameras in what social media has called a Jim Halpert from The Office look.

The candidate said he was trying to pay attention to the timer right next to the camera so he would be ready for his turn to speak.

“The timer is right by the camera,” Vance said. “So I was just, you know, I was trying to pay attention to what [Walz] is saying. But then you have to be ready for when his time is up, because then it’s your turn to speak.”

Vance said he could tell Walz was struggling as the CBS News moderators questioned him about whether he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests. The governor said he “misspoke” and was not in fact in Hong Kong at the time, but was there at one point that summer.

“It’s like the old Sun Tzu quote, right?” Vance said, referring to the Chinese military general and philosopher. “When your enemy is making a mistake, don’t interrupt him. I was just like, shut up. Do not say a damn thing, JD. Silence.”

The quote is often attributed to another famous military strategist, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Vance said his ultimate strategy during the debate was to use it as an opportunity to inform voters about Vice President Kamala Harris’s record.

“Ultimately, that was the right strategy,” he said.

However, Vance himself was perceived to have had rocky moments during the debate, particularly when questioned about Trump’s efforts to change the result of the 2020 election, and when Vance claimed that Trump had “saved” Obamacare, despite his repeated vows and efforts to overturn it.