Lip Reader Tells Us JD Vance Expressed Regret Over Embarrassing Debate Outburst

During the vice presidential debate, JD Vance had one moment in particular that some viewers considered rude. While some people like political commentator Megyn Kelly jumped to the vice presidential hopeful's defense, it seems that Vance himself may regret his behavior. In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment before a commercial break, Vance seemed to address the debate's moderators directly, and according to a lip reader, he likely apologized.

In Vance's debate against fellow VP candidate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, it was determined ahead of time that the CBS moderators wouldn't be fact-checking live. According to The New York Times, though, they could chime in if something a candidate said was difficult to understand. At one point during the debate, moderators Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan made a note about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, and Vance thought they may be breaking the rules. He interrupted to say, "The rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check. And since you're fact-checking me, I think it's important to say what's going on," per NBC News. 

When the debate paused for a commercial break, Vance seemed to say something to the moderators. The List spoke exclusively to lip reader Nicola Hickling, who believes Vance said, "I want to apologize."

It's telling that JD Vance expressed regret over his debate behavior. It's even more telling that he did so when he likely didn't believe cameras were rolling since it implies that his apology wasn't necessarily for optics. Therefore, Vance may have felt genuine regret for the way he interjected and spoke over the moderators when he believed them to be fact-checking. In the end, though, Vance likely benefited from the fact that they weren't able to fact-check him. According to The Washington Post's fact-checking, Vance made at least 14 statements during the debate that were false or misleading. 

The VP debate was the third debate of the 2024 presidential election, and each has had different rules about fact-checking. In the first debate, second-time Presidential hopeful Donald Trump went head-to-head with President Joe Biden, and there was no fact-checking. In the second debate, Trump went up against his new opponent Vice President Kamala Harris, and the moderators fact-checked them live. In the vice Presidential debate, the moderators stayed out of the fact-checking, but the candidates were permitted to fact-check each other. 

No matter how fact-checking is done — if at all — in a debate, it seems that candidates will always twist the truth, and some viewers will always dislike the way the fact-checking is handled. It is noteworthy, though, that being fact-checked seemed to be the thing that got Vance the most riled up.