Republican Sen. JD Vance and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz clashed Tuesday on everything from economic and gun policy to immigration and school shootings in the only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election.
The Ohio senator and Minnesota governor largely kept things cordial personally, even appearing chummy at times and saying they could work with each other. But they repeatedly savaged each other’s running mates and defended their party policies and tickets.
The debate, hosted by CBS News in New York City, could be the last event featuring candidates from both campaigns, with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump not currently scheduled to debate again.
Here are five key takeaways from the debate.
It wasn’t really about Vance or Walz
It was immediately clear the two prominent politicians on stage were merely proxies for their running mates, using the questions as vehicles to attack their top-of-the-ticket rivals and on many occasions going out of their way not to personally attack each other.
Walz used his first question, regarding Iran’s strikes on Israel, to hit at Trump’s age: “A nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment.” He went on to assail “Donald Trump’s fickle leadership” around the world.
Vance replied, “Who has been the vice president for the last three and a half years? And the answer is your running mate, not mine. Donald Trump consistently made the world more secure.”
In the next section, about climate change, Walz hit Trump again: “Donald Trump called it a hoax, and then joked that these things would make more beachfront property to be able to invest in.”
On immigration, Vance sidestepped when asked how Trump would carry out his mass deportation promise, and repeatedly attacking Harris: “I’ve been to the southern border more than our border czar, Kamala Harris, has been.”
Notably, both men said they believed their on-stage rival wants to solve the problem at the border, as well as other areas of policy disagreement.
“I believe Sen. Vance wants to solve this, but by standing with Donald Trump and not working together to find a solution, it becomes a talking point,” Walz said.
Vance replied, “I actually think I agree with you. I think you want to solve this problem, but I don’t think that Kamala Harris does.”
The most tension between them came toward the end, when Walz asked Vance point-blank if Trump lost the 2020 election. Vance wouldn’t give a straight answer, instead throwing a question back at Walz about censorship about the Covid-19 pandemic on Facebook.
Walz admits he flubbed Tiananmen Square story
Walz had a nervous first answer before getting into a rhythm later. But he stumbled a few times when asked about falsely claiming he visited Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests in the spring of 1989, when a report by Minnesota Public Radio said he was in fact there later in the year.
Walz initially dodged the question: “I’ve not been perfect, and I’m a knucklehead at times,” he said, while giving a long and meandering answer about his upbringing and expressing his commitment to Minnesotans through his career.
When a moderator followed up, Walz conceded: “I got there that summer and misspoke.”
It’s the type of question digging into past statements that national political candidates get a lot — but Walz has largely avoided media interviews and therefore hasn’t dealt with many questions since becoming the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
Vance defends his flip on past criticism of Trump
Vance was well-prepared with an answer when asked to explain his past criticisms of Trump, including saying he could be “America’s Hitler” and his critiques of Trump’s economic record as president.
“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, treading over territory he and his campaign have talked about in media interviews and responses to stories.
Vance continued: “But most importantly, Donald Trump delivered for the American people, rising wages, rising take home pay, an economy that works for normal Americans, a secure southern border… When you screw up, when you misspeak, when you get something wrong, and you change your mind, you ought to be honest with the American people.”
He also partially blamed Congress, saying there “were a lot of things on the border, on tariffs” that “could have done so much more if the Republican Congress and the Democrats in Congress had been a little bit better about how they governed the country.”
Walz and Vance pick through their running mates’ economic records
Walz came equipped with an argument to attack Trump on the economy, which is one of the GOP nominee’s strongest issues, according to polls that ask voters who they trust to handle it.
“Kamala Harris’ day one was Donald Trump’s failure on Covid that led to the collapse of our economy. We were already, before Covid, in a manufacturing recession — about 10 million people at work, largest percentage since the Great Depression,” Walz said.
Vance responded by attacking the Biden-Harris economic record as “atrocious” and defending Trump.
“Honestly, Tim, I think you got a tough job here, because you got to play Whac-A-Mole,” he said, accusing Walz of having to “pretend” that Trump’s economy improved wages and had lower inflation.
Walz also attacked Trump on taxes and trade policy.
“If you’re listening tonight and you want billionaires get tax cuts,” Trump is your candidate, Walz told voters while looking through the TV screen. “How is it fair that you’re paying your taxes every year and Donald Trump hasn’t paid any federal tax in the last 15 years?”
Vance’s revisionist history on Trump’s Obamacare repeal push
Vance rewrote the history of Trump’s years-long efforts to destroy the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” instead repeating the campaign’s claim that Trump rescued it.
“Donald Trump could’ve destroyed the program. Instead he worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Americans had access to affordable care,” Vance said when asked about Trump saying he has “concepts of a plan” to replace the 2010 health care law.
The claim distorts the facts. As president, Trump worked in a partisan way with Republicans to try and destroy ACA, endorsing legislation that would have rescinded the law’s insurance subsidies and prohibitions on charging higher prices to people with pre-existing conditions; the push fell one vote short in the Senate. He used executive actions to cut funding for programs to sign people up for coverage on the law’s marketplaces. He also asked the Supreme Court to wipe out the ACA in its entirety in 2020 — the case failed.
