By Michelle Grullon
Boston University News Service
On Oct. 1, 2024, the American people watched Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Waltz and Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance debate for the sake of their party and running mates. With over 40 million viewers on CBS, according to Nielsen, it was no surprise that the debate made headlines.
Debate Bingo
In recent years, a trend surrounding anticipated events has led individuals to make bingo cards. In reference to the political subject, these cards consist of references in previous debates, current jokes and anticipated behavior from certain candidates, with the ultimate goal being that players will get a bingo by the end of the night.
The VP debate followed this trend, with websites like Wired encouraging viewers to follow along at home by filling out their bingo card as the debate aired. On X, dozens of individuals played cards from both sides of the political spectrum with a range of categories, from ongoing bills to criticism of the various candidates. Ultimately, these cards were not only an engaging way for individuals to listen to the event, but also to share their political views in humorous ways.
Fact-checking
The process of fact-checking has been a very timely topic due to its live implementation for this year’s debates. Some people see it as a requirement, while others see it as a targeted way to attack their favorite candidate. A fact-checker was present for the VP debate, and soon enough, some issues struck when Vance grew annoyed at the facilitator.
“Margaret. The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check, and since you’re fact checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on,” he told the moderator.
To clarify, there was never a point where the facilitator had said fact-checking would not occur. Many individuals and news sites welcome the fact-checking, seeing it as a necessary step to keep both VP candidates and presidential candidates accountable for their words.
However some voters did not welcome this, as they believed the moderators to be biased against the Republican candidates. KamalaHQLies, an X account made to oppose Vice President Kamala Harris’ official political promotion account, posted on Oct. 2 that Kamala HQ purposely edited a clip to make Vance look bad.
“JD Vance was not complaining about the fact check but was instead gearing up to fact check the bias moderators,” the account said.
Similar processes and claims occurred during the main presidential debate as well. Though the future of live debates is unclear, it is clearly a topic on voters’ minds and has resulted in many conversations on social media, with people insulting candidates, moderators or the other party.
Minnesota abortion law
There has been heavy coverage in regards to the future of abortion laws when either candidate is voted into office, and this ongoing conversation continued during the VP debate. Back in January 2023, Walz signed a bill to allow women to retain access to abortions in Minnesota, despite the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
This was brought up as a discussion point during the VP debate, alongside a statement former President Donald Trump had made during the presidential debate that the Democratic Party is supporting abortion during the final month of pregnancy. Walz heavily explored this topic, stating examples of people that were harmed after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The discussion sparked a lot of interest in the victims mentioned, the abortion policy of candidates and the specific abortion security put in place in Minnesota. Google trends also noted a significant uptake in various different inquiries relating to abortion in Minnesota on Oct. 2, likely due to this discussion.
Who won the debate?
A common factor of most debates is people picking a winner. As a winner isn’t actually crowned during these events, the public takes it upon themselves to do it. Looking up “Who won the VP debate?” produces dozens of articles from different news sources, including from Politico who even wrote in one of their headlines that Vance won.
In the end, there isn’t a conclusive answer and decisions are more so made to convince the reader which candidate did better than the other. The lack of a true winner will not stop people from sharing their opinions, leading to heated debates on social media, as people will range from questioning a writer’s reasoning to insulting them for their opinion.
As the public anticipates the results for this upcoming election, there has been a clear uptake in the interest in politics compared to previous years.
However, it’s also important to make note of the fact that arguably the most viral trend in these debates is to belittle and insult those supporting the opposite party. The difficulty to encompass every aspect of the debate is mainly due to the fact that almost any moment will become viral if enough people are arguing about it online, which also serves as a reflection of our current political climate.