Politics
Column: Given Trump's age and fitness, President Vance is a real possibility. You've been warned
Do vice-presidential debates matter? Conventional wisdom says no. Historically, polls have shown that those quadrennial 90 minutes have little effect on how people will vote in the presidential election.
Tuesday night’s debate between the Democratic nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and his Republican opponent, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, seems to be following that pattern. Some pundits have claimed that Vance, who delivered a polished and unflappable performance, “won” the debate; Walz appeared more nervous and fumbled several questions, although he did, according to fact-checkers, lie far less often. Walz also scored big at the end, when he pushed Vance to confirm that President Biden did win the 2020 election and called Vance‘s deflection “a damning nonanswer.”
According to instant post-debate polling, most voters considered the debate a tie, and both men saw bumps in their favorability ratings, although these are unlikely to change that fact that Walz’s numbers are unusually high while Vance’s are remarkably low.
None of which, as previously stated, will likely matter come November.
Except for one thing. One very important and rarely mentioned thing: If Donald Trump wins, Vance could very well become president. Which should be a concern considering how historically low Vance’s approval ratings are: Before the debate, Vance was more unpopular than any vice-presidential pick in modern history, including Sarah Palin, who is often credited with helping John McCain lose his election in 2008.
Vance would be, after all, a heartbeat away from the presidency. And should he win, the 78-year-old Trump would, by the end of his term, become the oldest president ever to hold the office.
And Trump’s recent rambling and nonsensical speeches, as well as his decision to refuse a second debate with his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and pull out of a scheduled “60 Minutes” interview, indicate that he may already be struggling with issues of cognition and/or stamina, in addition to whatever strategic reasons are behind the choices.
In addition to regular non sequiturs about sharks and Hannibal Lecter, and outrageous lies that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their neighbors’ dogs and cats, Trump recently accused the president of North Korea of trying to kill him (he appears to have confused North Korea with Iran) and acknowledged that he doesn’t know what the Congo is (even as he falsely claimed that “many people” from there are flooding the U.S.)
It goes without saying that if Harris said any of these things, the press would be calling on her to step down. Which is precisely what happened after President Biden fumbled, in a far less dramatic way, his June debate against Trump.
In the absence of Biden on the campaign trail, Trump and Vance have been attacking Harris’ “policies,” which honestly displays a shocking ignorance about the role of vice president.
Those of us who have taken a high-school civics class, or seen at least one episode of “The West Wing” or “Veep,” understand that the main function of the vice president is to support the president, occasionally fill in for the president and, most important, assume the office of the presidency should the president die or become incapacitated.
Even if Trump’s notable lack of coherence and energy are not indications of mental and physical decline, the fact remains that Vance is, based on Trump’s age alone, among the vice-presidential candidates most likely to be called upon to fulfill that role in the history of the republic.
Yes, the guy who wrote the intro to Project 2025, who doesn’t trust people that don’t have children, who admitted that the racist tales about the Haitian community in Springfield were false but spread them anyway, who thinks that women should stay in abusive relationships for the sake of “family” and that the solution to our childcare problem is Grandma and who has referred to rape as an “inconvenience.” That guy could very well become our president.
So Tuesday night’s debate should be seen less as Vance facing off with Walz and more as Vance offering a preview of himself as leader of the free world.
As many have said in praising his performance, Vance offered a more polished version of Trump’s many ill-considered policies (tariffs, Project 2025), mischaracterizations (say, about the Biden administration’s responsibility for inflation) and outright lies (claiming that violent crime is up, for instance, or that most Americans support draconian abortion laws.)
Most important, by refusing to contradict Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election, Vance told us pretty much all we needed to know about his potential presidency. As an undecided Michigan voter told CNN after the debate: “I don’t think I can trust someone with my vote if they’re not going to respect it.”
When Biden defeated Trump in 2020, many worried that MAGA Republicans would next find a candidate who would push the same nationalistic, elitist and divisive agenda, only without the orange makeup, the many lawsuits and the tendency to veer off into narcissistic and often baffling rants.
Based on the vice-presidential debate, it looks like they have.
Politics
Federal judge blocks Trump from cutting childcare funds to Democratic states over fraud concerns
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A federal judge Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from stopping subsidies on childcare programs in five states, including Minnesota, amid allegations of fraud.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, a Biden appointee, didn’t rule on the legality of the funding freeze, but said the states had met the legal threshold to maintain the “status quo” on funding for at least two weeks while arguments continue.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it would withhold funds for programs in five Democratic states over fraud concerns.
The programs include the Child Care and Development Fund, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and the Social Services Block Grant, all of which help needy families.
USDA IMMEDIATELY SUSPENDS ALL FEDERAL FUNDING TO MINNESOTA AMID FRAUD INVESTIGATION
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it would withhold funds for programs in five Democratic states over fraud concerns. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
“Families who rely on childcare and family assistance programs deserve confidence that these resources are used lawfully and for their intended purpose,” HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said in a statement on Tuesday.
The states, which include California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York, argued in court filings that the federal government didn’t have the legal right to end the funds and that the new policy is creating “operational chaos” in the states.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian at his nomination hearing in 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In total, the states said they receive more than $10 billion in federal funding for the programs.
HHS said it had “reason to believe” that the programs were offering funds to people in the country illegally.
‘TIP OF THE ICEBERG’: SENATE REPUBLICANS PRESS GOV WALZ OVER MINNESOTA FRAUD SCANDAL
The table above shows the five states and their social safety net funding for various programs which are being withheld by the Trump administration over allegations of fraud. (AP Digital Embed)
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the lawsuit, called the ruling a “critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration’s cruelty.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the lawsuit, called the ruling a “critical victory for families whose lives have been upended by this administration’s cruelty.” (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News Digital has reached out to HHS for comment.
In what might be the most decisive critique yet of President Trump’s remake of the Kennedy Center, the Washington National Opera’s board approved a resolution on Friday to leave the venue it has occupied since 1971.
“Today, the Washington National Opera announced its decision to seek an amicable early termination of its affiliation agreement with the Kennedy Center and resume operations as a fully independent nonprofit entity,” the company said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Roma Daravi, Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, described the relationship with Washington National Opera as “financially challenging.”
“After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with the WNO due to a financially challenging relationship,” Daravi said in a statement. “We believe this represents the best path forward for both organizations and enables us to make responsible choices that support the financial stability and long-term future of the Trump Kennedy Center.”
Kennedy Center President Ambassador Richard Grenell tweeted that the call was made by the Kennedy Center, writing that its leadership had “approached the Opera leadership last year with this idea and they began to be open to it.”
“Having an exclusive relationship has been extremely expensive and limiting in choice and variety,” Grenell wrote. “We have spent millions of dollars to support the Washington Opera’s exclusivity and yet they were still millions of dollars in the hole – and getting worse.”
WNO’s decision to vacate the Kennedy Center’s 2,364-seat Opera House comes amid a wave of artist cancellations that came after the venue’s board voted to rename the center the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. New signage featuring Trump’s name went up on the building’s exterior just days after the vote while debate raged over whether an official name change could be made without congressional approval.
That same day, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) — an ex officio member of the board — wrote on social media that the vote was not unanimous and that she and others who might have voiced their dissent were muted on the call.
Grenell countered that ex officio members don’t get a vote.
Cancellations soon began to mount — as did Kennedy Center‘s rebukes against the artists who chose not to appear. Jazz drummer Chuck Redd pulled out of his annual Christmas Eve concert; jazz supergroup the Cookers nixed New Year’s Eve shows; New York-based Doug Varone and Dancers dropped out of April performances; and Grammy Award-winning banjo player Béla Fleck wrote on social media that he would no longer play at the venue in February.
WNO’s departure, however, represents a new level of artist defection. The company’s name is synonymous with the Kennedy Center and it has served as an artistic center of gravity for the complex since the building first opened.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is leveling a stunning accusation at Vice President JD Vance amid the national furor over this week’s fatal shooting in Minnesota involving an ICE agent.
“I understand that Vice President Vance believes that shooting a young mother of three in the face three times is an acceptable America that he wants to live in, and I do not,” the four-term federal lawmaker from New York and progressive champion argued as she answered questions on Friday on Capitol Hill from Fox News and other news organizations.
Ocasio-Cortez spoke in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good after she confronted ICE agents from inside her car in Minneapolis.
RENEE NICOLE GOOD PART OF ‘ICE WATCH’ GROUP, DHS SOURCES SAY
Members of law enforcement work the scene following a suspected shooting by an ICE agent during federal operations on January 7, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Video of the incident instantly went viral, and while Democrats have heavily criticized the shooting, the Trump administration is vocally defending the actions of the ICE agent.
HEAD HERE FOR LIVE FOX NEWS UPDATES ON THE ICE SHOOTING IN MINNESOTA
Vance, at a White House briefing on Thursday, charged that “this was an attack on federal law enforcement. This was an attack on law and order.”
“That woman was there to interfere with a legitimate law enforcement operation,” the vice president added. “The president stands with ICE, I stand with ICE, we stand with all of our law enforcement officers.”
And Vance claimed Good was “brainwashed” and suggested she was connected to a “broader, left-wing network.”
Federal sources told Fox News on Friday that Good, who was a mother of three, worked as a Minneapolis-based immigration activist serving as a member of “ICE Watch.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Ocasio-Cortez, in responding to Vance’s comments, said, “That is a fundamental difference between Vice President Vance and I. I do not believe that the American people should be assassinated in the street.”
But a spokesperson for the vice president, responding to Ocasio-Cortez’s accusation, told Fox News Digital, “On National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, AOC made it clear she thinks that radical leftists should be able to mow down ICE officials in broad daylight. She should be ashamed of herself. The Vice President stands with ICE and the brave men and women of law enforcement, and so do the American people.”
Detroit Lions score 4 players with AP All-Pro nods, including 2 first-timers
San Francisco Bay Ferry fleet brings back live music after 25 years
Every Dallas Restaurant That Closed in 2025
It’s Indiana and Miami in a college-football title matchup that once seemed impossible
Boston woman flummoxed after rat makes a home in stroller she left on porch
Florida High School Football Rankings: Top 25 teams – Oct. 21
Cleary's 21 help Le Moyne down Central Connecticut State 69-64 in OT
How old is Bo Nix? What to know about Oregon quarterback ahead of 2024 NFL Draft
99th annual Pony Swim held in Virginia
Video: ‘It Didn’t Have to Happen This Way:’ U.Va. Faculty Call for Review of Police Response to Protests
Federal judge blocks Trump from cutting childcare funds to Democratic states over fraud concerns
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,416
Trump administration can’t block child care, other program money for 5 states: Judge
AOC accuses Vance of believing ‘American people should be assassinated in the street’
Mercosur: How Macron’s domestic weakness undercut his Brussels clout
-
Detroit, MI7 days ago2 hospitalized after shooting on Lodge Freeway in Detroit
-
Technology4 days agoPower bank feature creep is out of control
-
Dallas, TX5 days agoDefensive coordinator candidates who could improve Cowboys’ brutal secondary in 2026
-
Dallas, TX2 days agoAnti-ICE protest outside Dallas City Hall follows deadly shooting in Minneapolis
-
Iowa4 days agoPat McAfee praises Audi Crooks, plays hype song for Iowa State star
-
Health6 days agoViral New Year reset routine is helping people adopt healthier habits
-
Nebraska3 days agoOregon State LB transfer Dexter Foster commits to Nebraska
-
Delaware1 day agoMERR responds to dead humpback whale washed up near Bethany Beach