Friendly Fire: Vance’s dodge, EV sales tax, and 16-year-old voters

Q. In the final moments of Tuesday night's vice-presidential debate, Tim Walz asked JD Vance about Trump's claim that he was the true victor four years ago. "Did he lose the 2020 election?" Walz asked. "Tim," Vance replied, "I'm focused on the future." That, Walz told the audience, "is a damning non-answer." What do you make of that moment?

Julie: I'm focused on the future too – which is why I am convinced that Trump and Vance will not let this election be resolved peacefully if Harris wins. Look, past is predicate. Trump instigated an attack on our capital and sat blithely by even when his own aides told him that Mike Pence – the man Vance replaced on the ballot – was in grave danger. Trump and his allies have stacked municipal and county election boards with cronies who will refuse to certify the local count. They have MAGAfied the House of Representatives so much that Republicans will refuse to certify the vote – as 139 House Republicans did on January 6, 2020. I also disagree with Gov. Walz when he called Vance's response a "non-answer." Vance gave us a very clear answer: He is an election denier and, predictably, his answer to this question was given for the benefit of an audience of one .

Mike: While I would have preferred a direct answer that Trump lost in 2020, because he did, I do have faith that the election system will perform on election day. For all the chaos of 2020, Trump left office. Biden is president. Republican election commissioners, secretaries of state and governors in Georgia and Arizona did their jobs, counting and certifying the votes correctly. I am involved in a great program called Democracy Defense Project , a bipartisan effort aimed at ensuring we rebuild confidence in our elections process. And even though you didn't ask, Vance absolutely crushed Walz in this debate.

Q. Escalating fighting between Israel and Hezbollah risk a wider war between Israel and Iran. If that happens, will the United States find itself in another long and grinding Middle East war? Would America's long alliance with Israel demand that we fight with them, shoulder to shoulder?

Julie: Let's calm down. American troops have never "fought shoulder to shoulder" with the Israeli Defense Forces, though Israel has had to fight many wars to protect its existence since 1948. We have provided Israel with training, intelligence and arms but never with battalions. There is also zero chance that Israel will invade Iran in a way that would lead to a grinding Middle Eastern war. Helping the Israelis take out Iranian capabilities in either Lebanon or in Iran itself is one thing – deploying American troops to storm Tehran is another. It's not going to happen.

Mike: I agree with Julie that the escalation will stop short of American troops on the ground, but this war has the potential to be the biggest war in the Middle East in many decades, and that will impact us.

Q. A federal judge on Wednesday struck down a California law that sought to ban the use of digitally altered political "deepfakes," saying it was an infringement on free speech. The law was inspired by a parody seen by 52 million viewer that shows Vice President Kamala Harris giving a fake speech, saying "I am the ultimate diversity hire. I'm both a woman and a person of color. So, if you criticize anything I say, you're both sexist and racist." The judge carved out an exception for a portion of the law that requires more disclosure that the content is indeed digitally altered. Good call?

Julie: I wonder where these deepfakes are going to end. We have already seen how pervasive they are in politics. They are increasingly also used to sexualize women and children. I appreciate the constitutional issues at stake here, but from a practical perspective, we are in for a world where too many victims will fall prey to deepfake exploitation that will lead to really horrific outcomes.

Mike: At the risk of showing my age, AI scares me. I like to think most people are smart enough to know the fakes, but I know most are not, and the fakes keep getting better all the time. There is a right to free speech, but not to identity theft or acting as an impostor to the point of slander, so the legal question will be when does that line get crossed.

Q. As of Tuesday next week, electric vehicles will no longer be exempt from the state sales tax, and by next year the benefit will be erased completely, raising the cost of the cars by 6.6%. What drove Gov. Phil Murphy and Democrats to take this step back in the climate fight?

Julie: I can't read this governor's mind – and I have long ago stopped trying to. Part of it may be that the budget is not in great shape, and he has to take the money wherever he can get it. On the other hand, it's very nice to put out press releases about how New Jersey will reduce climate pollutants by 50% by 2030. Depriving drivers of the incentive to help the state get there is a different story.

Mike: These tax exemptions for electric cars were essentially subsidies for the wealthy who could afford Teslas. Now that EV prices are coming down to where more median income families could afford them, perhaps EV's should compete in the free market fairly with other vehicles. Or maybe it's because Democrats no longer like Elon Musk.

Q. The Legislature plans hearings on charter schools this fall after two scorching stories by Matt Stanmyre of NJ Advance Media, one showing excessive salaries reaching $800,000 at a small chain of North Jersey charters, and another featuring a married couple earning a combined $600,000 from a Newark charter while living in Florida. On average, salaries are lower in charter schools than conventional schools, so these are outliers. But how do you expect those hearings to go for the charter school movement?

Julie: Not all charter schools are the same, just as not all public and private schools are the same. It makes sense for the Legislature, which has oversight of how taxpayer dollars are spent, to determine what works and what doesn't.

Mike: I am involved in the charter school movement supporting some of the schools you cite, and I am proud to stand with them. No public, private or charter school in New Jersey, or business for that matter, is mistake-free, and they will correct them. What matters to me is results. The CAPS charters schools in Asbury Park, Plainfield and Paterson perform at a much, much higher level than their public school counterparts in the same cities when it comes to reading and math scores. They send all their students to college, an incredible feat. They are changing lives for the better and doing so at a significantly lower cost than the traditional public schools in those cities. The same pattern follows almost all charter schools in the state, whether in Newark, Camden or elsewhere. In many communities for many families, charter schools are better choices. Results matter.

Q. Finally, Murphy visited Hoboken High School Tuesday to promote granting the right to vote in school board elections starting at age 16. Does that make sense? He wants to give them the right to vote in all elections eventually. Who would that benefit?

Julie: I love this and am so glad Gov. Murphy is doing it. I was as politically engaged at 16 – when I canvassed for Gov. Florio's gubernatorial campaign – as I was at 18, when I could vote. This benefits teenagers who feel passionately about their schools, their towns, their state and their country. It's a fantastic plan.

Mike: Considering the majority of 18-year-olds don't vote, same as the majority of 45-year-olds for that matter, I am happy to open up the vote to anyone younger who loves their community enough to participate.