Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance participated in the only vice presidential debate for this election season.
On Oct. 1, the two began their debate at 9 p.m. in Manhattan, New York, moderated by Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan.
Walz had the first word.
Middle East:
The moderators opened with the Middle East, asking Walz “If you are the final voice in the Situation Room, would you support or oppose a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran?”
In response to the question of whether or not he would support or oppose a preemptive strike, Walz said that Harris has the “steady leadership” that the country needs.
“When Iranian missiles did fall near U.S. troops and they received traumatic brain injuries, Donald Trump wrote it off as headaches,” Walz said.
Vance said it is Israel’s decision on how to handle the safety of their country. While he did not say whether he would support or oppose a strike on Iran by Israel, he said the U.S. would back Israel’s decision.
“Look, it is up to Israel what they think they need to do to keep their country safe, and we should support our allies wherever they are when they’re fighting the bad guys,” Vance said.
Climate change:
Walz said in the past, Vance had said there was a problem with the climate, while Vance’s running mate called it a hoax.
“We are producing more natural gas and more oil at any time than we ever have. We’re also producing more clean energy. So the solution for us is to continue to move forward. That climate change is real. Reducing our impact is absolutely critical,” Walz said.
Vance first brought up recent Hurricane Helene and its deadly impact on the U.S. He said he believed Walz would join him in saying his heart goes out to the people affected and so do his prayers.
He went on to say that if former President Donald Trump were to be elected again, American citizens would be put first when they suffer from disasters such as Hurricane Helene.
Vance said that both he and Trump support clean air, clean water and a clean economy. Cleaner air and water, according to Vance, can be achieved by investing in American workers.
“The answer is that you’d want to restore as much American manufacturing as possible, and you’d want to produce as much energy as possible in the United States of America because we’re the cleanest economy in the entire world,” Vance said.
Immigration:
Walz responded to Vance’s comments on the Biden-Harris administration’s control over immigration by discussing the opioid crisis.
Walz said that Trump had four years to build the wall and that “less than 2% of that wall got built, and Mexico didn’t pay a dime.”
Walz said that Harris was the attorney general of California, and has prosecuted transnational gangs for human trafficking and drug interventions. He also said Congress, border patrol agents, the Chamber of Commerce and Americans worked together on a bill regarding immigration.
Vance said Trump’s border policies need to be implemented.
“You’ve got to stop the bleeding. You’ve got to reimplement Donald Trump’s border policies, build the wall, reimplement deportations”
The first step, according to Vance, would be to deport illegal immigrants who have committed a crime “in addition to crossing the border illegally.”
Abortion and reproductive rights:
“Donald Trump put this all into motion,” Walz said. “He brags about how great it was that he put the judges in and overturned Roe vs. Wade, 52 years of personal autonomy, and then he tells us, ‘Oh, we send it to the states. It’s a beautiful thing.’”
As governor of Minnesota, Walz “restored Roe vs. Wade,” and “put women in charge of their healthcare,” he said.
Walz said infertility treatments aided him in being able to have a child. Walz also said that the states are deciding specific abortion laws, but that’s “not how this works.”
“This is basic human rights,” Walz said.
Walz said that Project 2025 will have a registry of pregnancies, making it difficult to get contraception and access to fertility treatments.
This statement was denied by Vance.
Vance identified himself as a “Republican who proudly wants to protect innocent life.” After identifying himself, he said that he feels the Republican Party has work to do when it comes to reproductive rights.
“We’ve got 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.
Instead of taking either a pro-life or pro-choice stance, Vance said he is “pro-family.”
“I want us to support fertility treatments. I want us to make it easier for moms to afford to have babies,” Vance said. “I want to make it easier for young families to afford a home so they can afford a place to raise that family.”
Gun violence:
Walz said he has a 17-year-old son who witnessed a shooting at a local community center when he was playing volleyball.
“Those things don’t leave you. As a member of Congress, I sat in my office surrounded by dozens of the Sandy Hook parents, and they were looking at my 7-year-old’s picture on the wall,” Walz said. “Their 7-year-old(s) were dead, and they were asking us to do something.”
Walz said he and Harris are both gun owners and recognize the Second Amendment.
Walz also touched on mental health and rural suicides, saying he wants to be careful with the stigma of mental health, saying just because someone has a mental health issue doesn’t mean they’re violent.
“Sometimes it just is the guns,” Walz said.
Vance looked to Walz to say that he believes the two are in agreement that the government needs to do better regarding gun violence and the “epidemic” that it has become.
He said that he believes to combat the dangers of gun violence in schools, saying doors, locks and windows need to be made stronger, and there needs to be an increase in school resource officers.
Inflation:
Brennan opened the topic of inflation with the current “high cost of housing and rent.”
“There’s a shortage of more than 4 million homes in the United States, and that contributes to the high housing prices,” Brennan said. “The Harris campaign promises a $25,000 down payment assistance for first-time home buyers and a $10,000 tax credit.”
Walz discussed how the Inflation Reduction Act has “created jobs all across the country.”
“2,000 [jobs] in Jeffersonville, Ohio, taking the EV technology that we invented and making it near 200,000 jobs across the country,” Walz said.
Vance said Harris is to blame for allowing illegal immigrants to drive up the price of housing in the U.S. as they compete with American citizens for housing.
“We have a lot of Americans that need homes,” Vance said. “We should be kicking out illegal immigrants who are competing for those homes, and we should be building more homes for the American citizens who deserve to be here.”
To curb inflation, Vance said energy prices should be lowered. He brought the conversation back to opening American energy production and the “immediate pricing relief” the change would provide for Americans.
Health Insurance:
Walz said that under the Biden-Harris administration, there were more people covered by insurance than there had been before.
Walz said that Trump signed on to a lawsuit that was to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act (ACA), saying Trump would have been able to do this if John McCain, a former U.S. senator didn’t “save that bill.”
“I think the idea of making sure the risk pool is broad enough to cover everyone, that’s the only way insurance works. When it doesn’t, it collapses,” Walz said. “The ACA works so we can continue to do better, Kamala Harris did that.”
Vance said the Trump administration would ensure Americans with preexisting conditions would be covered by insurance.
He recalled that in 2018, prescription drugs fell for the “first time in a long time,” and that price transparency was introduced.
In addition, Vance said a “really good argument” could be made that regulations Trump put in place “salvaged” Obamacare.
Election results:
On Jan. 6, 2021, Walz said his son and his dog were at the Minnesota state capitol grounds, where a group gathered and marched to the governor’s residence. His son was rushed out of the residence crying by police.
“This [Jan. 6, 2024] was a threat to our democracy in a way we had not seen and it manifested itself because of Donald Trump’s inability to say, he is still saying he didn’t lose the election,” Walz said.
Walz asked Vance directly if Trump had lost the 2020 election.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance responded.
O’Donnell asked Vance if he would seek to challenge the results of the 2024 election even if every governor were to certify their result.
He did not give a definitive answer to whether or not he would challenge the results of the election if the Trump-Vance Campaign were to lose the presidential race but said he would offer help, prayers and best wishes to Walz if he were to be the next Vice President.
“When this is over, we need to shake hands, this election, and the winner needs to be the winner, this has got to stop, it’s tearing our country apart,” Walz said.
There is no set date for a second vice presidential debate.
