The only Vice Presidential Debate between Ohio Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was held on Oct. 1, 2024, and it was moderated on CBS News by journalists Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan.
The debate focused on many topics, including conflicts in the Middle East, climate change, deportation, the economy, past claims from each candidate, abortion rights, school shootings, healthcare and voting fraud. Once either of the moderators asked a question to a candidate, they had two minutes to answer. Then, the opposing candidate had a two-minute response window. Both candidates got one minute to further clarify their points. If the moderators felt the candidates did not have their question answered completely, they could ask candidates to elaborate in one-minute answers.
To start the debate, Brennan asked a question to Walz asking if he would approve a preemptive strike on Iran by Israel to stop any further advances. Walz expressed the importance of Israel being able to defend themselves, but focused his answer on former President Donald Trump’s ability to handle situations such as the conflict in Gaza.
“What’s fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter,” Walz said. “It’s clear, and the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago, a near 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment.”
Vance was asked the same question. His answer focused on how Trump was the president in 2016 and has handled world conflict before. He also noted his belief that the conflicts were handled worse under current President Joe Biden.
“Donald Trump recognized that for people to fear the U.S., you needed peace through strength,” Vance said. “They needed to recognize that if they got out of line, the U.S. global leadership would put stability and peace back in the world.”
Climate change was the next topic of the debate. O’Donnell referenced Hurricane Helene that made landfall in the southeast and then moved inland. . Scientists believe that hurricanes as deadly as Helene are strengthened by climate change. She asked Vance what he would do as vice president under Trump’s administration to slow the effects of climate change. Vance assured that Trump will make disaster responses better if he becomes president. Vance supports a clean environment, and he feels that work to make energy should be done within the U.S. , not in other countries.
“If we actually care about getting cleaner air and cleaner water, the best thing to do is to double down and invest in American workers and the American people,” Vance said.
Walz wants people to understand how impactful he believes climate change is. He believes that America needs to prepare for weather to get worse. He spoke about work done in Minnesota to protect the infrastructure from severe changes in the weather.
“The infrastructure law that was passed [in Minnesota] allows us to think about mitigation in the future,” Walz said.
When deportation came up as a subject, Vance focused on how the problems are now and the faults of Biden and Harris. He claimed that deportation is one of the only viable solutions to the migrant problem because there is no housing for them in the U.S. Vance blamed Biden and Harris for these issues. He was also asked by Brennon about the mass deportation plan Trump has for the country.
“You start with deportation on the [criminal migrants],” Vance said. “Then, you make it harder for illegal aliens to undercut the wages of American workers.”
Walz also talked about how the migrant problem could be remedied in the future with plans that he and Harris will implement if they win the election. In response to Vance, Walz said that he thinks people should stop trying to place the blame, and instead start taking action to fix the problem.
“This is what happens when you don’t want to solve things,” Walz said. “You demonize it.”
The discussion on the migrant issue turned into a discussion on the economy because Vance believes that the current state of the economy is partially due to the migrant crisis. O’Donnell noted that both candidates have economic plans in their campaign. When Walz was asked about his and Harris’ plan, he expressed his empathy with the middle class and asked them to trust him to help them. The housing issue was a focus in his answers.
“A house is much more than just an asset to be traded somewhere,” Walz said. “It’s [fundamental] to where you’re at, and then making sure that the things you buy every day, whether they be prescription drugs or other things, that there’s fairness in that.”
Vance agreed with Walz that a house should be more than just the money a person can make from selling it, but he believes that Harris should have already been making the changes she now promises to .
“[Walz talks] a lot about what Kamala Harris proposes to do, and some of it, I’ll be honest with you, sounds pretty good,” Vance said. “Here’s what you won’t hear is what Kamala Harris has already done. She’s already been vice president for three and a half years. She had the opportunity to act [on] all of these great policies.”
The conversations to that point had mostly been centered on Trump and Harris, so Brennon brought up past claims that have been sources of criticism for each vice presidential candidate. For Walz, she referenced his claim that he was in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Other media outlets have reported that he was not there, so she gave Walz a chance to clear the air.
“I got there that summer and misspoke on this,” Walz said.
When Brennon addressed Vance, she pointed out that he was not always a fan of Trump. She specifically referenced his open contempt of Trump in 2016 when Vance called Trump “America’s Hitler.” She asked about his drastic switch to becoming Trump’s running mate.
“I’ve been extremely open about how I was wrong about Donald Trump,” Vance said. “I was wrong, first of all, because I believed some of the media stories that turned out to be dishonest fabrications of his record, but most importantly, Donald Trump delivered for the American people.”
The next topic of the debate was abortion rights. Walz was questioned about the bill he signed in Minnesota that made abortion mostly unrestricted. O’Donnell also noted a claim Trump made in the Sept. 10, 2024, Presidential debate about Walz allowing abortions in the ninth month. Walz explained that the bill did not allow that. He shared stories from people who suffered due to the criminalization of abortions. Walz believes that women should be put in charge of their own health care.
“We trust women,” Walz said. “We trust doctors.”
O’Donnell asked Vance if he would create a federal pregnancy monitoring agency, as his running mate has implied. Vance said that they won’t do that. He stated that when he was growing up, he knew many young women with unplanned pregnancies, some of which had abortions. Vance also explained that he wishes to protect every innocent life that he can.
“We have 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.
Trust also led the conversation to school shootings and gun violence. The candidates were asked by O’Donnell about how they would remedy the current gun violence in America. Walz responded by telling his own story of how his son witnessed a shooting. He explained how traumatic it was and emphasized that he wants to do what he can to stop this from happening to anybody else’s kid. His plan is to make it harder for people to get guns in the first place.
“Other countries in the world aren’t doing [active shooter drills], they’re being kids,” Walz said. “We owe it to [American children] to get it fixed.”
Vance agreed that this issue needs to be solved. He wants people to recognize that it can’t be magically resolved. Vance believes that the root of gun violence is because of the mental health state of most citizens in America.
“We have way higher rates of mental health [and substance abuse],” Vance said. “We have way higher rates of depression. Way higher rates of anxiety. We unfortunately have a mental health crisis in this country that I really do think we need to get to the root cause of because I don’t think it’s the whole reason why we have such a bad gun violence problem, but I do think it’s a big piece of it.”
Healthcare was the next major topic. Vance believes that Trump did a good job with health care in his presidency. His plans are to return what was done in Trump’s administration and add on to it in the years they would be in office.
“Donald Trump has earned the right to put in place better health care policies,” Vance said. “He’s earned it because he did it successfully the first time.”
Walz spoke of what Harris has already done. He asked that the country trust him and Harris to improve upon the ideas they already have.
“Kamala Harris negotiated drug prices for the first time with Medicare,” Walz said.
Voting was one of the last topics of the debate. They talked about the 2020 election lawsuits and the Jan. 6 riot. O’Donnell pointed out that in the past Vance has said that he would not have certified the 2020 elections if he were in the position to do so. She asked if he would do what Trump did in 2020 if they did not win the 2024 elections. Vance emphasized that he did not support anyone who was a part of the Jan. 6 insurrection. He believes people are too focused on the past with voting.
“I think we [should be] focused on the future,” Vance said. “We need to figure out how to solve the inflation crisis caused by Kamala Harris’ policies, make housing affordable, make groceries affordable and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Walz focused on how they would react if they didn’t win the election.
“Sometimes you really want to win, but the democracy is bigger than winning an election,” Walz said. “You shake hands, and then you try and do everything you can to help the other side win.”
Finally, the candidates offered their closing statements. Walz went first as was determined by a coin toss on Sept. 26. Walz’s closing statement was centered around the future. He believes that if he and Harris win, they’ll be able to make America better through their policies and optimistic outlooks.
“[Democrats] believe in a positive future in the country, and one where our politics can be better than it is,” Walz said.
Vance used the first half of his closing statement to talk about energy. He believes that energy should be made available to everyone, so anyone can turn on the heat when it gets cold. Vance also talked about how he believes he and Trump could make America better.
“We have the greatest country, the most beautiful country [and] the most incredible people anywhere in the world, but they’re not going to be able to achieve their full dreams with the broken leadership that we have in Washington,” Vance said.
The elections are 35 days from the Vice Presidential Debate. There are no future debates scheduled in the 2024 election.
