The vice presidential debate on Tuesday night saw Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota and Senator JD Vance of Ohio face off on issues ranging from abortion to industrial policy to democracy — with only a little bit of complaining about the rules.
The decision by CBS News not to fact-check loomed over the debate. Vance remarked on the decision early on when moderators Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell noted that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were in the country legally under Temporary Protected Status, not illegally, as Vance has claimed.
“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 actually going on,” Vance said.
Aside from that dust-up, the vice presidential debate was significantly more polite 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. In between his chances to speak Walz would frown, though he did steady later in the debate.
“Tim Walz seems incredibly nervous,” The Hill’s Robby Soave said in a tweet.
Vance spent the night dodging questions on topics like climate change and how a Trump-Vance admin could cover the cost of extending tax cuts first passed under former President Trump.
Vance's most notable side-step came toward the end of the debate, when he refused to answer a question concerning whether or not he would accept the results of the 2024 election.
Vance asked viewers to remember that Trump “said that on January the 6th, the protesters ought to protest peacefully, and on January the 20th, what happened? Joe Biden became the president. Donald Trump left the White House.”
Walz cornered Vance on the question, saying that Jan. 6 "was a threat to our democracy in a way that we have not seen” and asked whether Vance would say that Trump lost the 2020 election.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance replied.
"That is a damning, that is a damning non-answer," Walz said
Throughout the debate, Walz put Vance in the position of defending Trump’s record. He referenced Trump's previous penchant for called climate change a “hoax” and asked Vance about the former president's rollback of abortion rights. Vance came prepared to discuss his own past criticisms of Trump, like when he suggested that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.”
“Sometimes, of course, I disagree with the president, but I’ve also been extremely open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump. I was wrong, first of all, because I believed some of the media stories that turned out to be dishonest fabrications of his record,” Vance said.
Vance put Walz on the backfoot on immigration early in the debate and saying “I’ve been to the southern border more than our border czar, Kamala Harris, has been.”
“I think you want to solve this problem, but I don’t think that Kamala Harris does,” Vance added.
Abortion also featured prominently in the debate with Walz sharing the story of Amber Thurman, who died tragically while awaiting a dilation and curettage procedure. Performing that procedure in Georgia, outside of specific circumstances, is considered a felony under the state’s abortion law.
"There's a very good chance that if Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota, she'd be alive today," Walz said, later adding that “This is basic human rights.”
If elected, Trump has promised 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's issue during the debate, posting on Truth Social that he would veto a federal abortion ban.
This stance marks a shift for Vance, who supported Sen. Lindsey Graham's bill that would’ve banned abortions nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
On economic issues, the candidates discussed manufacturing, housing, the cost of healthcare and the cost of childcare at length, with Vance directing economic discussions back to immigration talking points.
“There’s a Federal Reserve study that we’re happy to share after the debate — we’ll put it up on social media, actually — that really drills down on the connection between increased levels of migration, especially illegal immigration, and higher housing prices,” Vance said.
On the same issue, Walz suggested that the root of the current affordability crisis was that housing was treated as a commodity.
“This issue of housing — and I think those of you listening on this — the problem we’ve had is that we’ve got a lot of folks that see housing as another commodity,” Walz said.
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