Key takeaways from a substantive, civil VP debate between Vance, Walz

Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz engaged in a substantive, civil exchange in their first and only vice presidential debate Tuesday night.
Vance said Americans were better off under Trump, while speaking about his family’s experiences struggling with poverty as he grew up in Ohio.
Walz said Harris would help the middle class, while speaking about policies he championed as Minnesota’s governor.
The race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is a dead heat in most national polls, as well as in the swing states they will need to capture to win in November. Whether this debate moves the needle in either direction remains to be seen.
Both Walz and Vance have faced critical news stories since entering the race — with Vance facing criticism over comments he made about “childless cat ladies” when he was speaking about the low birth rate, and Walz facing criticism over exaggerations and untruths about his military record, his experience in China and a DUI arrest.
The debate was hosted by CBS News, with moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan. They asked questions on issues like foreign policy, climate change, the economy and abortion.
When asked about Iran launching a barrage of missiles at Israel on Tuesday, Walz said Israel has a right to defend itself, stumbling a little over the details, while quickly pivoting to criticizing Trump as an “almost-80-year-old” who talks about “crowd size.” That is “not what we need in this moment,” Walz said.
Before answering, Vance took the opportunity to provide a brief introduction to himself, saying he was “raised in a working class family” with a mother who “required food assistance for periods of her life.” Vance also spoke about serving in Iraq while he was in the Marine Corps.
“When did Iran and Hamas and their proxies attack Israel? It was during the administration of Kamala Harris,” Vance said. “So Governor Walz can criticize Donald Trump’s tweets, but effective, smart diplomacy and peace through strength is how you bring stability back to a very broken world.”
The moderators brought up the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in the South, saying scientists say hurricanes are “larger, stronger and more deadly” because of climate change.
Vance said the hurricane was an “unbelievable, unspeakable human tragedy.” He said he and Trump want “clean water” and the environment to be “clean and safer,” before pivoting to talking about energy production.
He said people worried about climate change should want manufacturing and energy production to come back to the U.S., “because we’re the cleanest economy in the entire world.”
Walz said as a governor, he is working with other governors without partisanship to send aid.
He also criticized Trump for saying climate change was a “hoax,” and said the Biden-Harris administration promoted green energy projects through the Inflation Reduction Act.
“My farmers know climate change is real. They see 500 year droughts, 500 year floods back to back. But what they’re doing is adapting,” Walz said.
“The crisis at the US Mexico border consistently ranks as one of the top issues for American voters,” said Brennan, before asking Vance about the plan to deport migrants in the country illegally.
Vance said the U.S. has a “historic immigration crisis,” because Harris undid Trump’s border policies, including reversing “94 executive orders.” The results, he said, was asylum fraud and fentanyl coming into the country.
Vance said Trump would start by securing the border, then they would deport “criminal migrants,” and then would make it harder for people to work illegally in the U.S.
During his answer, Walz quoted scripture, “Matthew 25:40 talks about to the least amongst us, you do unto me. I think that’s true of most Americans,” he said.
Walz also said he supported a bipartisan bill on immigration that stalled in Congress when it couldn’t garner enough support, accusing Trump of interfering to stop it from passing.
“We could come together and solve this if we didn’t let Donald Trump continue to make it an issue,” said Walz.
Vance, in his response, said Harris had three-and-a-half years to do something on the border, and she didn’t until “a few months” before running for president.
At the end of the immigration segment, the moderators interjected to do a fact check, and Vance pushed back, saying “The rules were that you were not going to fact check, and since you’re fact checking me, I think it’s important to say what’s actually going on.” After Walz and Vance engaged in crosstalk, the moderators cut their mics.
The moderators pointed out both Trump’s and Harris’ economic plans would drive up the deficit.
Walz defended Harris’ economic policies, saying they would help middle class families and drive down the cost of housing, while saying Trump’s policies would help the rich.
Vance said a lot of Harris’ policies “sounds pretty good.” But, he said, Harris has “been the vice president for three and a half years. She had the opportunity to enact all of these great policies, and what she’s actually done instead is drive the cost of food higher by 25%, drive the cost of housing higher by about 60%, open the American Southern border and make middle class life unaffordable for a large number of Americans.”
Vance also said under Trump, taxes helped working class and middle class Americans.
Walz replied by saying it was Trump’s “failure on covid that led to the collapse of our economy,” before circling back to say Trump would help the wealthy and not the middle class.
Vance replied by saying, “Kamala Harris’s atrocious economic record” has made “gas, groceries and housing unaffordable for American citizens.”
On abortion, the moderators questioned Walz about Minnesota’s abortion law, saying it was one of the “least restrictive states in the nation when it comes to abortion,” asking him if it was true that abortion should be allowed in the ninth month.
Walz said that’s “not what the law says,” before blaming Trump for the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
“This is about health care,” Walz said. “In Minnesota, we are ranked first in health care for a reason. We trust women, we trust doctors.”
Vance said his issue with Minnesota’s law is that it does not require doctors to give healthcare to babies who are born alive during a botched abortion. Walz denied that.
On abortion access, Vance said, “Donald Trump has been very clear that on the abortion policy specifically, that we have a big country and it’s diverse, and California has a different viewpoint on this than Georgia. Georgia has a different viewpoint from Arizona, and the proper way to handle this, as messy as democracy sometimes is, is to let voters make these decisions, let the individual states make their abortion policy.”
When both Walz and Vance spoke about the issue of firearms, they said they were speaking as fathers concerned about the safety of their children.
Vance said most of the gun violence is perpetrated by people with “illegally obtained firearms,” pivoting back to immigration, and saying cartels were bringing guns across the border.
Walz said he was once an “NRA guy,” but after speaking with parents who lost their children at Sandy Hook Elementary School he changed his mind on gun control legislation.
The moderators pointed out high rents and house prices are among the biggest drivers of higher inflation, asking Walz and Vance what the Trump and Harris administrations would do.
Walz said he supported the vice president’s plan to help families with down payments, while Vance said he supported seizing federal land to build more homes, reducing illegal immigration and reducing regulations.
On healthcare, Walz said “Kamala Harris would protect and expand” the Affordable Care Act, passed under former President Barack Obama.
Vance said Trump saved the ACA from collapsing, while Walz accused Trump of wanting to dismantle the ACA.
Both Walz and Vance said they support policies that provide assistance for women who want to stay home after having a child.
Walz said Minnesota passed a paid family leave program, while Vance said he wanted a policy that would provide more “choice” for families when it comes to childcare options.
Vance defended Trump after the moderators asked about his unsubstantiated claims that the results of the 2020 election were fraudulent.
“Look, what President Trump has said is that there were problems in 2020 and my belief is that we should fight about those issues, debate those issues, peacefully in the public square, and that’s all I’ve said, and that’s all that Donald Trump has said,” Vance said.
Walz said 2020 was the first time a president tried to overturn a “fair election.”
This issue is “settling our differences at the ballot box, shaking hands when we lose, being honest about it. But to deny what happened on Jan. 6, the first time in American history that a president or anyone tried to overturn a fair election in the peaceful transfer of power, and here we are, four years later, in the same boat,” Walz said.
Both Walz and Vance spoke about their running mates in their closing statements, and both tried to say their candidates would represent change.
Walz, who went first, said Harris has built an “optimistic” and “positive” coalition, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and singer Taylor Swift.
“Kamala Harris is bringing us a new way forward,” said Walz. “She’s bringing us a politics of joy. She’s bringing real solutions for the middle class, and she’s centered on you at the heart of that.”
Vance started his closing statement by speaking about his grandmother, and her inability to afford to turn on the heat on a cold winter night.
“I believe, as a person who wants to be your next vice president, that we are a rich and prosperous enough country where every American, whether they’re rich or poor, ought to be able to turn on their heat in the middle of a cold winter night,” he said. “That’s gotten more difficult thanks to Kamala Harris’s energy policies.”
Vance said Harris’ day one was “1,400 days ago,” and ended by saying the country needed “change” and a “new direction.”
Vance and Walz will both head back out on the campaign trail now that their debate is over. With 35 days to go until Election Day, Trump, Harris and their running mates will be sprinting between swing states to try to win over voters, and to try to get them out to vote.