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Vance and Walz focused their attacks on the top of the ticket in a polite 90-minute debate.
In the first and only vice presidential debate, J.D. Vance and Tim Walz launched attacks on the president’s opponent, arguing over international conflicts, the U.S. economy, immigration, and abortion rights.
It was perhaps the most civil debate of the campaign, with a mostly calm tone and moments of agreement, but there were still some heated moments and at least one microphone was muted.
Here are some of the most memorable moments from the debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mates.
Microphones muted over immigration clashes
Video: Vance on Springfield Immigrant’s microphone muted after host fact-checks
Immigration was a key topic throughout the 90-minute debate. Mr. Vance, the Republican senator from Ohio, frequently brought back seemingly unrelated questions to the U.S. southern border, which voters see as a weakness for Democrats.
Minnesota Gov. Walz, a Democrat, has always countered that Trump helped pass bipartisan legislation backed by the Biden administration that would enact some of the toughest immigration policies in U.S. history.
The discussion eventually turned tense when Mr. Vance was asked about false claims he had made about illegal immigrants, including Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. Mr. Vance and Mr. Trump previously shared a conspiracy theory that immigrants entered the United States illegally and ate family pets in this small town.
When the CBS host tried to correct Mr. Vance on this claim by pointing out that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield are there legally, the Ohio senator repeatedly addressed the host and said, I had the microphone muted.
International conflict is behind the discussion
The first question posed to the candidates on Tuesday was a topic that weighs heavily on the minds of many Americans: the Middle East conflict.
Mr. Walz and Mr. Vance took to the stage just hours after Iran launched a missile attack on Israel, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising that Iran would pay for the attack.
Walz, who seemed nervous, stumbled a little in his initial response, repeating Harris’ firm pledge to support Israel.
Meanwhile, Vance reiterated one of Trump’s main talking points: No new world conflicts broke out during the former president’s time in office.
However, neither has said whether they would approve of Israel’s pre-emptive strike against Iran.
Waltz digs deep on abortion, Vance changes position
The top issue for voters in the 2024 election sparked one of the longest and most heated debates of the night: abortion rights.
This is an issue that Democrats have used to get voters to the polls. They called Trump a threat to women’s autonomy because of his role in appointing a conservative majority to the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade, the court decision that previously protected abortion rights in the United States. has been regularly accused of
Walz took a similar approach Tuesday, citing the stories of Amber Thurman and Candy Miller, two Georgia women whose deaths were related to abortion restrictions in their home state.
Abortions after six weeks were prohibited in Georgia until a state judge struck down the Georgia law.
Meanwhile, Vance said his position on the issue has changed. He said he previously supported some kind of national restriction on abortion, but claimed his position changed after seeing a majority of Ohio voters support abortion access. .
Waltz from Tiananmen Square claims he’s a knucklehead
Waltz’s claim about the Tiananmen incident: “Sometimes my fingers get crooked.”
Shortly before the debate, Walz’s previous claims that he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen massacre in June 1989 were overturned by new scrutiny.
When asked about it during the debate, Walz said, “Sometimes my fingers curl.”
The Minnesota governor clarified that his statements were incorrect, but said he was affected by the event because he arrived in China that summer.
Mr. Vance was also asked to respond to past comments, including an earlier attack in which he referred to vice presidential candidate Mr. Trump as “America’s Hitler.”
The Ohio senator responded by saying he, like many people, has made mistakes in the past.
“I was wrong about Donald Trump,” Vance told the hosts.
Politeness is on stage
The vice presidential debate was a stark contrast to last month’s first meeting between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, which was full of insults and frequent interruptions.
The evening began with a handshake, and both Vance and Waltz were polite and continued to greet each other with great civility. Sometimes they even smiled at each other and said they agreed with what the other was saying.
There were only a few heated moments during the entire debate. The discussion became somewhat tense when the moderator asked questions about abortion and immigration, but the two mostly avoided the issues and avoided personal attacks.
But they took some shots at the top of the ticket.
Vance defends Trump on January 6th
Another tense moment of the night occurred when Vance was asked to speak about Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was “rigged.”
The hosts also brought up the fact that Vance previously said he had no intention of certifying the 2020 election results as vice president.
The Ohio senator maintained his support for Trump, saying the former president called on demonstrators to protest peacefully on Jan. 6, the day of the Capitol riot.
He added that if Democrats win the election, Walz “will hear my prayers, wish me good luck, and get my help,” but said there are legitimate issues to raise about voter fraud and security. He claimed to have doubts.
That answer drew some skepticism from Walz, who said he and his opponent are “miles apart” on the issue of January 6 and the integrity of the election.
