Insights from the Vance-Walz vice presidential debate

CNN
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The vice presidential debate between Ohio Senator JD Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was something that has become increasingly rare in modern American politics: normal.

Although the trajectory of the presidential race is unlikely to change, the two candidates have been cordial with each other, instead focusing their attacks on the opposing candidates' leaders and largely focusing on policy differences. Vance repeatedly criticized Vice President Kamala Harris over border security, while Walz sharply criticized former President Donald Trump over abortion rights.

Vance was the younger face and more polite voice of the Republicans. Unlike Trump, he pronounced Harris' first name correctly. He referred to his opponent by his title. He didn't often complain about the moderators – although Trump did so during the debate on his Truth Social platform. The Ohio senator also largely failed to negotiate the details of Walz's own biography.

Walz – who was noticeably more uncomfortable on stage than Vance – settled in after a nervous start. He portrayed Trump as a liar who ignores experts and rejects truths he finds unfavorable.

“Look, if you want to be president, you don’t have all the answers,” he said. “Donald Trump thinks he does.”

Here are five takeaways from the first and only scheduled vice presidential debate of the 2024 election:

'The audience can't hear you': Moderators turned off microphones for the first time during the VP debate

The evening's clearest division came when Walz embarrassed Vance during a discussion about the January 6, 2021 insurrection and Trump's false claims that he won the 2020 election.

“Did he lose the 2020 election?” Walz asked Vance, trying to force the Ohio senator to acknowledge a reality that Trump himself would not accept.

“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance began his answer.

“That’s a damn non-answer,” Walz retorted.

Vance sought to sidestep the violent attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol on the day Congress gathered to formally count the Electoral College votes and certify Joe Biden's victory.

“What happened on January 6th? Joe Biden became president; “Donald Trump has left the White House,” Vance said.

Walz, however, elaborated on the costs of Trump's efforts to overturn the election results.

“He lost that election and he said he didn’t. One hundred and forty police officers were beaten at the Capitol that day, some with the American flag, and several later died,” he said. “Democracy is bigger than winning an election.”

Vance tried to redirect the discussion about democracy into a debate about social media censorship. But each time he tried, Walz fought back, arguing that Trump had already laid the groundwork to reject the outcome of the 2024 race if he lost.

“Here we are four years later in the same boat,” Walz said. “The winner has to be the winner. This has to stop. It’s tearing our country apart.”

During a debate about immigration and border security, Walz invoked Vance's false claims that Haitian immigrants ate the pets of residents of Springfield, Ohio.

“There are consequences to this,” Walz said, pointing out that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, sent state troopers to Springfield to ensure the safety of children after a series of bomb threats.

Vance retorted: “The people I care about most in Springfield are the American citizens.”

In Ohio City and cities like it, Vance said, because of the influx of migrants, “there are schools that are overwhelmed, hospitals that are overwhelmed, housing that is completely unaffordable.”

What Vance didn't say: The 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian migrants in Springfield are in the United States legally.

But Walz did not fact-check Vance on the matter. And when he didn't, CBS anchor Margaret Brennan explained the legal status of these immigrants.

The Springfield conflict occurred during a long back-and-forth over immigration policy. Vance repeatedly referred to Harris as President Joe Biden's “border czar,” a label that refers to her mandate in 2021 to address the root causes of migration from Central American countries. And Walz criticized Trump for his role in blocking a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year, saying the former president did so to keep immigration alive as a campaign issue.

“We could come together and solve the problem if we didn’t let Donald Trump continue to make it an issue,” Walz said.

New reports from Minnesota Public Radio News and APM Reports ahead of Tuesday's debate questioned Walz's claims about how many times he has traveled to China, which he previously said was “about 30 times.” Reports contradicted these claims, and particularly whether the governor of Minnesota was in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

CNN also reported additional information on Walz's claims on Tuesday.

When asked about the reports and the discrepancy, a Harris campaign spokesman said it was “probably closer to 15.”

And when asked directly about it during the debate, Walz filibustered, first describing his upbringing and rise in electoral politics before acknowledging that he could sometimes get caught up in the moment and be a “phony,” saying, he “wrote” it.

Vance didn't try to capitalize on Walz's concession directly, but he alluded to it in another question shortly afterward, saying, “If you misspeak, you should be honest with the American people.”

As the debate turned to the issue of abortion, both candidates were asked to address claims about their candidate's stance on reproductive rights.

Walz was asked to respond to a false claim by Trump that the Minnesota governor supported nine-month abortion. In one of his strongest moments of the evening, Walz brought up the personal stories of women who have faced health crises or died because of state abortion bans.

“In Minnesota, we restored Roe vs. Wade,” Walz said. “We have ensured that women take responsibility for their health care.”

While discussing abortion, the governor falsely claimed that the Trump campaign and the conservative Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 were creating a “registry of pregnancies.” The organization's proposal would require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to collect data on abortions.

Vance was asked whether the Trump campaign wanted to create a “federal pregnancy surveillance agency,” referencing another previous claim by Walz.

“Absolutely we’re not going to do that,” Vance said. The Ohio senator defended the repeal of federal abortion protections, pointing to a 2023 ballot initiative in his state that enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution. Vance argued that the Republican Party needs to do a better job of advancing “family-friendly” policies, including access to fertility treatments, and making housing more affordable.

Vance and Walz had almost a constructive conversation about gun violence in America, agreeing that it is bad, getting worse, and needs to be addressed — especially in schools.

That this is worth mentioning underscores how fruitless Democratic efforts have been in the past to stem the bloody tide. But the question of how to deal with it remained unresolved, despite the friendly nod from the two on stage.

At one point, Vance even suggested that the current administration's border policies (or, as he put it, “Kamala Harris's open border”) were a driving factor – which, given the length and depth of the crisis, is not an implication. However, he also acknowledged that it was a more complicated matter.

Walz mostly agreed with that sentiment, but struggled to keep the conversation from descending into a stalemate. When Vance pointed to mental health and drug use as other causes of gun deaths, Walz tried to refocus the conversation.

“Sometimes it’s just the guns,” Walz said. “It’s just the weapons.”

Minnesota's governor agreed that lawmakers should “address all the issues,” but paused at that point and added a warning.

“This idea of ​​stigmatizing mental health — just because you have a mental health issue doesn’t mean you’re violent,” Walz said.

The candidates also raised concerns about how schools responded to the threat of active shooters. But again, Vance viewed the issue as a force of nature rather than a political issue.

“Unfortunately, I think we need to increase security in our schools,” he said, acknowledging that it was not a pleasant prospect. “We have to ensure that the doors are locked better. We have to make the doors stronger. We need to make the windows stronger.”

Walz partially agreed but called for tougher restrictions, asking viewers: “Do you want your schools to be so hardened that they look like a fortress?”

This story has been updated.