Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate pitted Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota and Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio on issues ranging from abortion to industrial policy and democracy — with only minor complaints about the rules.
CBS News’ decision not to fact-check loomed over the debate. Vance made early comments on the decision when moderators Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell noted that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were in the country legally under temporary protected status, and not illegally as Vance has claimed.
“The rules were that you guys weren’t allowed to fact-check, and since you’re fact-checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s really going on,” Vance said.
Apart from this commotion, the vice presidential debate was considerably more civil than the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. The candidates struck a more respectful tone, with observers noting Walz’s apparent nervousness on stage. Between his opportunities to speak, Walz would frownalthough he remained stable later in the debate.
“Tim Walz seems incredibly nervous,” The Hill’s Robby Soave said in an email tweet.
Vance spent the night dodging questions on topics like climate change and how a Trump-Vance admin could cover the costs of extending tax cuts first passed under former President Trump.
Vance’s most notable sidestep came toward the end of the debate, when he declined to answer a question about whether or not he would accept the outcome of the 2024 election.
Vance asked viewers to remember that Trump “said protesters should protest peacefully on January 6, and what happened on January 20? Joe Biden became president. Donald Trump left the White House.”
Walz cornered Vance on the question, saying Jan. 6 “posed a threat to our democracy in a way we haven’t seen yet” and asking if Vance would say Trump lost the 2020 election.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance replied.
“That’s a damning, that’s a damn non-answer,” Walz said
Throughout the debate, Walz put Vance in the position of defending Trump’s reputation. He referenced Trump’s previous tendency to call climate change a “hoax” and asked Vance about the former president’s rollback of abortion rights. Vance prepared to discuss his own past criticism of Trump, such as when he suggested Trump could be “America’s Hitler.”
“Sometimes, of course, I disagree with the president, but I have also been very open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump. I was wrong in the first place because I believed some media stories that turned out to be unfair fabrications of his reputation,” Vance said.
Vance blasted Walz on immigration early in the debate, saying, “I’ve been to the southern border more times than our border czar, Kamala Harris, has.”
“I think you want to solve this problem, but I don’t think Kamala Harris does,” Vance added.
Abortion also figured prominently in the debate with Walz sharing the story of Amber Thurman, who tragically died while awaiting a dilation and curettage procedure. Performing this procedure in Georgia, outside of specific circumstances, is considered a crime under the state’s abortion law.
“There’s a very good chance that if Amber Thurman had lived in Minnesota, she would still be alive today,” Walz later said. add that “These are basic human rights.”
If elected, Trump has pledged to keep abortion policy as a state-level issue, and Vance agreed with that position. The former president reiterated his position on abortion as a state issue during the debate, posting on Truth Social that he would veto a federal abortion ban.
The position marks a shift for Vance, who supported Senator Lindsey Graham’s bill that would ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
On economic issues, the candidates discussed at length manufacturing, housing, the cost of health care and the cost of child care, with Vance referring the economic discussions back to the talking points of immigration.
“There is a Federal Reserve study that we would like to share after the debate – we will post it on social media – that delves deeper into the link between increased levels of migration, especially illegal immigration, and higher housing prices. ” said Vance.
On the same issue, Walz suggested that the cause of the current affordability crisis was that housing was treated as a commodity.
“This issue of housing — and I think those of you listening to this — the problem that we’ve had is that we have a lot of people who see housing as another asset,” Walz said.
