On Monday night, Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan and Republican J.D. Vance met for their second debate as they vie to see who will replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and fill Ohio's open U.S. Senate seat. While a hallmark of this most recent debate, just like last week's, was on Ryan's desperation and penchant for personal attacks, another memorable moment was the discussion of January 6, 2021.
Debate moderator Bertram de Souza gave a description of the January 6th select committee's findings that were rather friendly to the committee, which included mentioning the committee was "bipartisan." He asked the candidates if former President Donald Trump should comply with the subpoena he received as well as "in light of all the evidence and testimony accumulated by the committee, was the January 6th insurrection an attack on American democracy, or, were the hundreds of insurrections just tourists visiting the Capitol, as Republican Congressman Andrew Clyde of Georgia contended?"
Rep. Ryan, who answered first, fed into the language used by de Souza. In addition to calling on Trump to respond to the subpoena, he added that "I do think that the insurrection was a group of people who were trying to overthrow the United States of America and I think they were trying to stop the peaceful transition of power from President Trump to President Biden and disenfranchise over 80 million of our own fellow citizens."
Tim Ryan: "I do think that the insurrection was a group of people who were trying to overthrow the United States of America." pic.twitter.com/e76YjBAI2M
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 17, 2022
The congressman then continued a debate tactic he had gone with throughout this debate and last week's, which was to continuously attack Vance, as he claimed in a rant that Vance raised money for January 6 "insurrectionists" and their legal defense, which he called "outrageous" and "insane."
Ryan also made some muddled remarks about the fatalities on that day. When talking about the 140 officers that were injured at the U.S. Capitol, Ryan mentioned that "one person died, these were cops protecting the Capitol." In reality, the only person to die that day was Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by a Capitol police officer.
Vance responded more calmly by adding it would "probably be a pretty enlightening piece of testimony if Trump did honor the subpoena," though he did not wish to get into offering him legal advice. He instead emphasized that "the January 6 committee has shown from the very beginning that it is not interested in the truth, that it's interested in a political hit job," which also involved mention of the conspiracy theories surrounding Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election. "There's been a nonstop effort to not honor the presidential election of 2016, and I think that's just as much of a threat to democracy as the violence on January the 6th," Vance said, also pointing out he's "condemned the violence repeatedly."
He then addressed Ryan's accusations, by pointing out that Fraternal Order of the Police has endorsed him, telling Ryan "because you have stabbed the police of this district and of this entire state in the back many, many times." Vance questioned Ryan as to "why won't you condemn the violence in summer of 2020, when people were rioting and looting and burning down American streets," adding "Tim Ryan was nowhere to be found" at the time but may be willing to now that he's running for higher office.
Vance then said what most voters are surely thinking. "But look, the January 6 thing, here's the biggest problem I have with it. What happened on January 6 was bad. I don't like violence anywhere, I certainly don't like it at the United States Capitol, but the media obsession and Tim Ryan's obsession with this issue while people can't afford the cost of groceries, where his policies have made it impossible for people to support their families, where we have a massive border security problem, where we know where Big Tech companies were actively being involved in the 2020 election in a way that hid Hunter Biden and Joe Biden's corruption," he listed as examples.
"We can talk and think about a lot of different issues, and I think the political media's obsession with January 6 suggests they're not actually paying attention to the concerns of everyday voters in this state who are getting crushed by the policies you supported," Vance continued as he pointed to Rep. Ryan.
As was mentioned at the start of Monday night's debate by moderator Lindsay McCoy, inflation is a top issue for Ohio voters. An Emerson College poll released last week which found Vance leading 46 percent to 45 percent, also found that the economy was a top issue for 45 percent, with "threats to democracy" a very distant second with 15 percent, and abortion in third with 13 percent saying it was their top issue.
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