US VICE PRESIDENTIAL contenders JD Vance and Tim Walz faced off in a surprisingly civil debate overnight, despite tense moments on the hot topics of migration, abortion and the threat of war in the Middle East.
Republican Vance and Democrat Walz dug into policy and avoided the bitter personal attacks that presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris exchanged during an often-heated clash in September.
But the shadow of their bosses hung over the CBS debate, with Walz attacking Trump as a threat to democracy and unfit to lead America on the world stage, and Vance slamming Harris’s record on the economy and illegal migration as part of President Joe Biden’s administration.
A key moment came near the end, when Vance refused to say whether he backed Trump’s false claims to have won the 2020 election against Biden.
Walz said Vance was helping to deny “the first time in American history that a president or anyone tried to overturn a fair election and the peaceful transfer of power”.
He also asked Vance if Trump won the election in 2020, to which Vance responded: “I’m focused on the future”.
WALZ: Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 2, 2024
VANCE: Tim, I'm focused on the future
WALZ: That's a damning non-answer pic.twitter.com/D6tVg8HOFC
Minnesota governor Walz described this as a “damning non-answer” and blasted Trump over the 6 January, 2021 attacks on the US Capitol by pro-Trump supporters.
There was also a fiery moment when Vance, who mostly restrained his persona as Trump’s attack dog, had his microphone briefly muted when the moderators tried to factcheck him on migration.
Vance had said 15,000 Haitians in the city had caused housing, economic and other issues that the Biden-Harris administration was ignoring.
When the debate moderators pointed out that the Haitians living there had legal status, Vance protested that CBS News had said its moderators would not be fact-checking, leaving the onus to the candidates.
WOW -- Vance gets mad when his lies about his own constituents are fact-checked. His mic ends up getting cut. pic.twitter.com/PxZ4nmphNW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 2, 2024
As Vance continued and the moderators tried to move on, his microphone was cut and neither man could be heard.
Walz said false stories spread by Vance and Trump about migrants in the town of Springfield, Ohio “dehumanize and villainize other human beings.”
When they had first turned to immigration and the influx of migrants coming over the US-Mexico border, one of the most heated topics of the campaign, the two men credited each other with having good intentions.
Walz said: “I believe Senator Vance wants to solve this, but by standing with Donald Trump and not working together to find a solution, it becomes a talking point and when it becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanise and villainise other human beings.”
Vance echoed the sentiment, saying: “I think you want to solve this problem, but I don’t think that Kamala Harris does.”
Another tough exchange was over abortion, a key issue since a Supreme Court packed with judges picked by Trump overturned the national right to abortion in 2022.
Vance accused Democrats of taking a “very radical pro-abortion stance” who backed what he called “barbaric” laws. Walz hit back saying he was “pro-women.”
Vance embraces state abortion bans that are killing women pic.twitter.com/5ziHXqe2Nt
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 2, 2024
But the debate, which is likely to be the last before the 5 November vote, featured a mostly respectful tone despite the deep ideological differences between the two men.
Vance, 40, and Walz, 60, who both claim folksy roots in the US Midwest, said several times that they agreed with each other during the debate, and shook hands at the beginning and the end.
The usually ebullient Walz had a nervy start and stumbled several times, but became more confident, while Vance gave a smooth performance.
Their fire was trained instead on their opposite running mates.
Trump came up again as the “veep” rivals took on the crisis in the Middle East after Iran’s missile attack on Israel.
Walz slammed Trump’s foreign policy record, accusing the ex-president for a “turn towards” Russia’s Vladimir Putin” and his withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“As much as Governor Walz just accused Donald Trump of being an agent of chaos, Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world,” Vance countered.
Walz faced some awkward questions, particularly when he was forced to admit he “misspoke” about whether he had been in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China.
His misleading claim that he was in Hong Kong during the turbulence surrounding the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre is part of a broader pattern of inaccuracies that Republicans hope to exploit.
Walz responds to a q about him misrepresenting when one of his trips to China occurred by detailing his bio and says of his trips of China, "I would make the case that Donald Trump should've come on one of those trips with us. I guarantee he wouldn't be praising Xi about covid" pic.twitter.com/IqRqqaITuo
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 2, 2024
Confronted with his misstatements about his travels to China years ago, Walz defended himself by saying: “I’ve not been perfect.”
In fact, he said: “I’m a knucklehead at times.” Eventually, he acknowledged he misspoke about his history.
Meanwhile, Vance was asked to address his past biting criticisms of the former president, including once suggesting Trump would be “America’s Hitler”.
“When you get something wrong and you change your mind, you ought to be honest with the American people,” he said.
But aside from the contentious exchange surrounding the attack on the Capitol, the debate featured more moments of good feeling than might have been expected.
Vance and Walz shake hands and chit chat after the debate ends and introduce each other to their spouses pic.twitter.com/dXwSPqkb6w
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 2, 2024
Walz said he had “enjoyed tonight’s debate, and I think there was a lot of commonality here” before noting that he is “sympathetic to misspeaking on things and I think I might have with the senator”.
“Me too, man,” Vance responded.
Trump praised his protege after the debate, saying on his TruthSocial network: “GREAT JOB JD — We will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
History suggests vice-presidential debates rarely move the dial much. But in an election campaign that has seen Harris step in for President Biden unprecedentedly late in the game, Tuesday’s contest may have added significance.
It was also a chance for Americans to be introduced to the two men who would be a heartbeat away from the presidency – or next in line should the president step aside.
Walz and Vance both claim to be the true voice of the crucial swing states that could decide the election.
Both are military veterans with strong blue-collar credentials. Vance authored the Rust Belt memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” – before going to law school and working in Silicon Valley – while Walz is a former teacher and football coach.
The combative Vance shares Trump’s penchant for courting controversy, whether by smearing Democrats as “childless cat ladies” or by boosting false claims that Haitians living in an Ohio town ate residents’ pets.
Walz became a hit with Democrats for branding Vance and Trump “weird” and for his progressive politics.
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