Five weeks before the Nov. 5 election, Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz engaged in a remarkably civil vice presidential debate Tuesday night, with both sides claiming they represent the change Americans are seeking for a country they believe is on the wrong track.
Vance repeatedly questioned why Vice President Kamala Harris had not done more during her time in the White House to solve problems such as inflation and illegal immigration. Walz, Harris’ Democratic running mate, suggested she already had done a lot and would be in a position to make more progress if she is elected.
The Republican senator closed the 1-hour, 47-minute debate by saying that life had become more difficult for many Americans during the time President Biden and Harris have been in the White House. He cited the high price of buying a home, home heating oil or taking a family for the night on the town.
“Kamala Harris … stands before the American people and says that on Day 1, she’s going to work on all these challenges I just listed,” Vance said. “She’s been the vice president for 3½ years. Day 1 was 1,400 days ago, and her policies have made these problems worse.”
Walz used his closing statement to remind Americans about former President Trump’s dark rhetoric about the country, including a description of the “carnage” that awaited, if he was not in the White House. The Democrat promised a more optimistic and forwarding-looking leadership under Harris.
There “is the sense of optimism, that there can be an opportunity economy that works for everyone,” Walz said, “not just to get by, but to get ahead.” He said Harris would also bring “the idea that freedom really means something … in your bedroom or exam room, but the freedom for you to make choices about yourself.”
With the two campaigns unable to agree on future debates, Tuesday night’s contest at CBS News headquarters in New York City will probably be the last face-to-face showdown between the Democratic and Republican tickets for the White House.
Vance’s vice presidential campaign got off to a rocky start, as the candidate was asked to explain some of his past statements, including that “childless cat ladies” held disproportionate sway in America’s politics. But on Tuesday, the Republican wasn’t asked to talk about cat ladies, or other provocative comments from his past.
In a striking departure from the presidential debate in September, Vance and Walz instead agreed multiple times during the session that they agreed on many things.
Speculation before the debate had been that Walz’s folksy charm — given his background as a high school teacher and football coach — might prove more winning than the polish of Vance, a Yale-trained lawyer and tech entrepreneur.
But, particularly in the early stages of the debate, Walz seemed hurried and on edge, while Vance appeared more at ease.
The Minnesota governor spoke elliptically when asked to explain his claim that he had been in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, when, in fact, he didn’t arrive in China until months later.
Walz acknowledged that at times he “will get caught up in the rhetoric,” and “I’m a knucklehead at times.” But he said that his trips to Hong Kong and China were made in a spirit of learning and that did not change just because he misspoke about the dates of his visit.
Walz’s strongest moment may have come near the end of the debate, when the moderators asked about the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Vance attempted to use the question to talk about what he said was “censorship” by Harris of certain speech, including about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walz said the nation should remain shocked that Trump refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, despite the findings of multiple courts, many of them led by judges appointed by Trump and other Republicans.
Saying that “a president’s words matter,” the Democrat excoriated Trump and accused Vance of a “damning non-answer” for refusing to say Biden fairly won four years ago.
“What happened on Jan. 6, the first time in American history that a president or anyone tried to overturn a fair election and the peaceful transfer of power, and here we are, four years later, in the same boat,” Walz said. “I will tell you this, that when this is over, we need to shake hands … and the winner needs to be the winner. This has got to stop. It’s tearing our country apart.”
The debate began with each blaming the other’s party for the deteriorating conditions in the Middle East, while declining to say whether they would support a preemptive strike by Israel against Iran.
Walz argued that Israel was able to successfully defend itself after an attack by Hamas because of the coalition of nations that the United States helped bring together to support Israel. The Democrat said the crisis showed the sort of steady leadership the Democrats bring to the White House.
He said Donald Trump had shown himself more interested in making comments on social media, instead of leading. “A nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment,” Walz said, before noting that Republicans close to Trump, including Vance, had previously declared the former president unfit to lead the nation.
Vance responded that the international community was safer when Trump was president and argued that the Biden and Harris administration undermined the fear that other nations had of crossing the United States.
“Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world, and he did it by establishing effective deterrence. People were afraid of stepping out of line,” Vance said. “Iran, which launched this attack, has received over $100 billion in unfrozen assets thanks to the Kamala Harris administration. … They use it to buy weapons that they’re now launching against our allies and, God forbid, potentially launching against the United States as well.”
The debate continued with discussions about immigration and abortion.
After Walz brought up the threats the community of Springfield, Ohio, has faced after Vance and Trump falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets, Vance deflected the attack by reframing the question as being about broader immigration policy.
“Look, in Springfield, Ohio, and in communities all across this country, you’ve got schools that are overwhelmed, you’ve got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you’ve got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes,” Vance said, though the Haitians are in the nation legally with temporary protected status.
“It is a disgrace, Tim, and I actually think I agree with you,” Vance continued. “I think you want to solve this problem, but I don’t think that Kamala Harris does.”
Walz countered that Trump derailed a bipartisan proposal this year that combined increased funding for border security and foreign aid for Ukraine, an effort that appeared to be the first immigration breakthrough in recent history.
“Law enforcement … asked for the bill. They helped craft it. They’re the ones that supported it,” he said. “That’s because they know we need to do this.”
In response to a question about abortion, Vance acknowledged that reproductive rights are a political liability for himself and Trump and that many Americans do not trust Republicans on the issue.
Vance mentioned an unnamed woman from his hometown who was in an abusive relationship when she unexpectedly got pregnant. She got an abortion, she said, and confided that she felt her life would have been derailed had she not ended the pregnancy.
“What I take from that, as a Republican who proudly wants to protect innocent life in this country, who proudly wants to protect the vulnerable, is that my party, we’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue where they frankly just don’t trust us,” Vance said.
Vance said he believed that abortion rights should be determined by the states.
“Donald Trump has been very clear that, on the abortion policy specifically, that we have a big country, and it’s diverse,” he said.
Walz responded: “How can we as a nation say that your life and your rights — as basic as the right to control your own body — is determined on geography?”
Perhaps a byproduct of their Midwestern roots, Vance and Walz repeatedly talked about their areas of agreements while attacking their rival at the top of the ticket.
A notable moment took place during a discussion about gun violence, when Walz spoke about one of his children witnessing such an incident.
“This is just your biggest nightmare,” Walz said. “Look, I get it. I’ve got a 17-year-old, and he witnessed a shooting in a community center playing volleyball. Those things don’t leave you as a member of Congress.”
Vance, who has three young children, appeared genuinely struck by Walz’s words.
“Tim, first of all, I didn’t know that,” he said. “I’m sorry about that. Christ have mercy.”
