‘Oh, shut up’: Democrats react to the debate with worries about Walz and anger at Vance

As the vice presidential debate wore on and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz found his feet, hitting Republican Senator JD Vance more and more, a gathering of Democrats just outside of Washington DC shifted from silent to celebratory.

Democrats and Kamala Harris supporters, many of them military veterans, had descended on the home of Micaela Pond in Arlington, Virginia, to watch what is likely to be the final face-to-face clash between the two presidential campaigns before voters head to the polls.

Before the debate got under way, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland made an appearance while people chatted over chilli, guacamole and various desserts.

Attendees picked up bingo cards that included phrases like “mind your own damn business” or “childless cat ladies” in anticipation of which election buzzwords would make an appearance on the night.

But once the debate got going, the crowd fell largely silent – particularly as Walz got off to a rather rocky start and then had to admit he was not, after all, in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre.

“I’m a knucklehead at times,” he painfully admitted.

All the while, Vance seemed to stick religiously to his talking points, particularly about illegal immigration.

Some watch party attendees said that Walz was likely caught off guard by his opponent’s lies.

“He probably could not believe the amount of lying JD Vance was doing,” Alexandria Stracco told The Independent. “This is a man literally selling a revisionist history. And I think that for Tim Walz, when he sees this in person, he's like, ‘this is real. This man is really stupid.’”

The tense vibe in the room began to shift, however, after the first commercial break when the discussion pivoted to abortion.

When Vance proclaimed