Less than four weeks until the November midterm elections for J.D. Vance and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) We met to discuss Monday night, as they compete to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH). While Ryan was once considered a moderate and still likes to think of himself that way, his debate performance was rife with fear and hypocrisy.
Early in the debate, moderators asked about China as an enemy, during which Ryan claimed that Vance had invested in China. Although he repeatedly brought it up, he was unable to provide evidence.
The moderators also asked about abortion early on, including what restrictions Ryan would support on abortion, a question he has tried to sidestep in the past. While Ryan signaled support for what he said would “codify Roe v. Wade, the law in question, the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), would actually expand Roe. It would also invalidate pro-life laws passed at the state level.
In an attempt to underscore his claim that Vance does not support abortion exemptions, Ryan engaged in a particular display of fear-mongering when it came to the tragedy of rape victims and pregnancy complications as part of the “chaos we have right now.”
Ryan continued, claiming that “we read at least a couple of articles a week about young people, underage girls, who have been raped, or women who have had, uh, serious pregnancy problems, not being able to get help in the state. They have to go to Indiana, they have to go to Illinois, and that’s not good enough for J.D. Vance, who supports a nationwide abortion ban, where he wants women to have to get a passport and have to go to Canada.” The congressman then called for “some moderation on this issue,” before calling his opponent an “extremist,” which he did throughout the night.
The contested laws, which ban abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy, are based on the assumption that unborn babies can feel pain at this stage, does include exceptions, including for rape of a woman who is receiving counseling and treatment, and when rape or incest against a minor is reported to the appropriate authorities.
Vance said during the debate, as he has before, that he supports allowing a 10-year-old rape victim to have an abortion if she and her family choose. He also said Ryan’s view is not the old-fashioned Democratic mantra of his Mamaw, who raised him, that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.” Instead, the congressman “voted for legislation that would overturn Roe and required abortion on demand at 40 weeks for entirely elective reasons. He also voted for a bill that would have prevented doctors from providing medical care to babies who survived botched abortions.”
On the issue of legislation, Vance raised questions about the wisdom of allowing states to decide their own abortion laws, but also said that “some minimum standards are totally fine with me.”
But this time he really hit out at Ryan, reminding him that the alleged criminal who raped a 10-year-old girl and got her pregnant was in the country illegally.
“But let’s talk about this case,” Vance said. “Because why was a 10-year-old girl raped in our community, raped in our state? The media and Congressman Ryan, they talk about this all the time, what they never mention, is that this poor girl was raped by an illegal immigrant, someone who should not have been in this state in the first place.” Vance then turned to Ryan to denounce how “you voted so many times against funding the border wall, so many times for amnesty, Tim. If you had done your job, she would never have been raped.” As the buzzer sounded for time, Vance urged Ryan to “do your job on border security, not lecture me on positions that I don’t really have.”
Oh gosh, @JDVance1 I just knocked out Tim Ryan!!!
“You voted against funding the border wall so many times… If you had done your job, she would never have been raped. Do your job on border security, don’t lecture me on views I don’t actually have.” #OHSenDebate photo:twitter.com/MzDLevzKeI
—Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 10, 2022
Vance used the opportunity to attack Ryan not only on the abortion issue, which he did, but also on the issue of illegal immigration, which would come up later in the debate, given the prevalence of fentanyl in this country and in Ohio.
The JD Vance for US Senate Press account has tweeted extensively about the opioid crisis that has personally affected Vance’s family and many others in Ohio. One tweet said that Ohio is the third-highest state in drug overdoses.
Reminder: Ohio ranks third among states in the nation for drug overdoses.
More than 80% of these overdoses are caused by fentanyl, which is flowing across Joe Biden and Tim Ryan’s wide-open border #OHSenDebate
— JD Vance for US Senate Press (@JDVancePress) October 10, 2022
Since Tim Ryan took office, drug overdoses in Mahoning County have increased by more than 350%, in Trumbull County by more than 330%, and in Portage County by 400%.
Meanwhile, Tim Ryan is making blood money from huge pharmaceutical companies that are poisoning his voters. #OHSenDebate
— JD Vance for US Senate Press (@JDVancePress) October 10, 2022
Not only did Ryan fail to adequately respond to Vance’s allegations, is financed by pharmaceutical companies that profited from opioid addiction, but he also attacked Vance on the issue, saying Vance “started a nonprofit that tried to take advantage of people in Ohio. And you know what, all you did was launch your political career.”
In addition to mentioning that the case was personal to him, Vance responded to Ryan by again linking fentanyl to illegal immigration. “Why are the people who got rich off the opioid epidemic funding Tim Ryan and attacking me?” he asked. “Because this guy is the biggest fan of pharmaceuticals and the biggest fan of illegal pharmaceuticals, which is the Mexican drug cartels that are bringing this poison into our country.”
TO WATCH: @JDVance1 exposes Tim Ryan for taking ‘pharma money for blood’ #OHSenDebate
“The same corporations that brought this poison into our country funded your campaign to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.” photo: twitter.com/K1iAL6HWRJ
— JD Vance for US Senate Press (@JDVancePress) October 10, 2022
Abortion wasn’t the only social issue Ryan was scaring, warning that same-sex marriage and contraception rights were under threat. And decent moderators were also stirring up hysteria on the issue.
One question from NBC4i’s Colleen Marshall was an attempt to “put something else on the record on this” and remind us how “the Senate plays a unique role in confirming Supreme Court nominees.” Her question claimed that “marriage equality, as the congressman mentioned, could be changed by the Supreme Court,” even though there’s a forceful possibility the Court will ever take up such a case, let alone a majority of the justices voting to overturn the 2015 ruling. Obergefell v. Hodges is highly unlikely. Marshall asked if that would be part of the “litmus test” for Senate candidates, Ryan said yes, and Vance said there is no such test.
While Vance reiterated that same-sex marriage is already the law of the land and that he opposes legislation that would codify it into federal law because of concerns about lawsuits against religious organizations, Ryan raised concerns about Justice Clarence Thomas’s companion opinion, which addressed the possibility of reconsidering same-sex marriage and contraception rights. It is worth recalling that this was a lone concurrence Dobbs v Jackson and the Court’s opinion, as well as the concurrence of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, emphasized that Dobbs the decision concerned abortion only.
On the issue of abortion and contraception, as well as his claims that Republicans are in favor of banning books, Ryan has repeatedly claimed that Vance and the Republican Party are the ones who want to “ban books and get government into the bedroom and doctor’s office.”
At the end of the debate, the candidates were asked what they believed was the greatest threat to democracy. While Vance’s direct response was about the influence of Big Tech, Ryan focused on “extremism,” including “rioters” and “election deniers,” with whom he tried to link Vance. He then warned against candidates who “don’t have the courage to stand up to their own party,” which Ryan also tried to claim applied to Vance. This is despite his own record.
The congressman has been particularly hypocritical of candidates who pander to party leadership, especially since he has claimed to support former President Donald Trump on issues like China and trade while occasionally opposing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Joe Biden.
As Vance mentioned during the debate and has said extensively in the past, Ryan voted with Pelosi and Biden 100 percent of the time. Even a particularly partisan fact check with PolitiFact admitted it. While Ryan also made a huge deal about Vance allegedly sucking up to Trump, he himself made remarks when Schumer was present that “I want to make sure he’s my future boss, so I have to suck up a little bit.”
Ryan not only engaged in fear-mongering and hypocrisy, but also doubled down on extreme positions and responses. Both Vance and the moderators brought up Ryan’s comments last month on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that we need to “kill and confront this movement” of so-called “extremist Republicans.”
The congressman also endorsed President Joe Biden’s speech from earlier last month, in which the president demonized “MAGA Republicans” during an appearance outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Ryan argued throughout the debate that January 6, 2021, was an “uprising” and that “we came very close” to losing what he said was “the foundation of this country, our elections, our voice,” meaning “that’s when we lose everything.”
The race is expected to favor Vance, with prognosticators rating him as “Lean Republican” or “Likely Republican.” Vance is +1.4 ahead in the polls, by RealClearPolitics.
