Why JD Vance’s ‘fact-checking flashpoint’ in the debate matters

About a third of the way into the vice presidential debate, the discussion turned to Springfield, Ohio — a community torn apart by a racist and false conspiracy theory promoted by both members of the Republican Party’s presidential ticket. It was against this backdrop that Sen. JD Vance, who ostensibly represents the city, referred to “millions of illegal immigrants” and parts of the country that have been “destroyed by Kamala Harris’ open border.”

The Republican senator was peddling a multi-layered lie: The border isn’t “open”; the vice president isn’t responsible for the nation’s immigration laws; and Springfield’s Haitian immigrants entered the country legally. Indeed, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee, took the opportunity to note that his rival had “vilified a large number of people who were here legally.”

At that point, one of the debate’s moderators, CBS News’ Margaret Brennan, told viewers, “To clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio, does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status.”

The GOP nominee was not having it. The New York Times referred to it as the debate’s “fact-checking flashpoint,” and NBC News’ report summarized it this way:

“The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check,” the senator complained.

In reality, even that wasn’t quite true: As the Times’ report noted, CBS News executives had indicated ahead of the event “that the moderators may choose to clarify a fuzzy point if they determined it had been left unclear.”

Or put another way, Vance lied about fact-checking after having lied about immigration policy.

But the on-air clash had a larger significance. The Ohio Republican wasn’t upset because the debate moderators were wrong; he was upset because the debate moderators were telling the public the truth.

And as Vance made clear over the course of the evening, telling the truth simply wasn’t part of his debate strategy.

Much of the post-event analysis has focused on the fact that the young senator appeared polished, smooth and well-prepared for much of the debate, while Walz, who missed some opportunities, seemed nervous and at times unsteady. Those assessments are largely fair. But more important than the GOP candidate’s presentation and style was the fact that he spent much of the evening peddling an alternate reality with little resemblance to the real world.

I recently wrote a book about Republican efforts to rewrite recent history, and even I was amazed at Vance’s brazenness when it came to waging war against the recent past.

The GOP nominee lied about Trump and the Affordable Care Act. He lied about the “peaceful” transfer of power after Trump’s 2020 defeat. He lied about his earlier support for a national abortion ban. He lied about his party’s regressive 2017 tax breaks. This is a small sampling from a much longer list of obvious falsehoods.

A separate New York Times analysis said Vance showed “a knack for revising history,” which was a polite way of saying the senator spent the evening lying to the electorate about matters large and small. A Washington Post report added that Vance “dominated on the falsehood meter.”

No wonder he seemed quite agitated about moderators telling the truth: The Republican was busy trying to pull a con on the American electorate, and the CBS News anchors were interfering with his scam.

A couple of weeks ago, Vance conceded that he’s willing to “create stories” to advance his goals. It was hard not to think of this line during this year’s only vice presidential debate.