JD Vance, Tim Walz spar over Mideast, immigration, the economy in vice presidential debate

Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz put their Middle America appeal to the test Tuesday night in what was likely the final debate of the 2024 presidential election cycle.

In a cordial forum with barely a month to go until the Nov. 5 election, the candidates were out to show they’re fit to be a heartbeat away from the presidency — and to boost their respective running mates at the top of the ticket, GOP former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

The debate, airing on CBS, came hours after Iran launched missile attacks on Israel as tensions rise across the Middle East.

Early in the debate, topics that surfaced included the immigration crisis at the southern border — as well as Vance’s insistent false claims that Haitian immigrants have eaten pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Most political prognosticators say vice presidential debates rarely impact election outcomes, but that could change in a year where most polls have put Trump and Harris in a statistical dead heat.

Harris and Trump debated last month and haven’t agreed on a second on-stage matchup. Vance and Walz aren’t scheduled to square off again before the election either.

Follow along here with the Sun-Times for updates throughout the debate.

Iran’s attack on Israel

In a stilted response to start the exchange, Walz sidestepped a question about whether he’d authorize a preemptive strike on Iran given its expanding nuclear capabilities.

“The expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute fundamental necessity for the United States to have the steady leadership there… along with our Israeli partners and our coalition, to stop the incoming attack. But what's fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter.”

“Our coalition is strong, and we need the steady leadership that Kamala Harris is providing,” Walz said.

Vance mostly avoided the question, introducing himself to voters before asserting that Trump, during his first term, “delivered stability in the world, and he did it by establishing effective deterrence. People were afraid of stepping out of line.”

“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.

Hurricane Helene, devastating floods

Asked how a second Trump administration would address climate change, Vance slammed Biden administration policies he claims “actually led to more energy production in China, more manufacturing overseas, more doing business in some of the dirtiest parts of the entire world.

“So 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 and unfortunately, Kamala Harris has done exactly the opposite,” Vance said.

Walz tried to drive a wedge between Vance and his running mate. “Sen. Vance has said that there's a climate problem in the past. Donald Trump called it a hoax and then joked that these things would make more beachfront property to be able to invest in.”

“We're 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,” Walz said.

Deportations at the border

Vance said Trump’s promise of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants would start with “the criminal migrants,” though experts have said there is no evidence that an outsize number of new arrivals have committed any crime.

“I think you start with deportations on those folks, and then I think you make it harder for illegal aliens to undercut the wages of American workers,” Vance said. “A lot of people will go home if they can't work for less than minimum wage in our own country.”

Walz countered that Vance himself previously ridiculed Trump’s promises to “build the wall” at the border and slammed the former president for pushing congressional Republicans to block immigration reform.

“This is what happens when you don't want to solve it. You demonize it,” Walz said. “Talking about and saying, I will create stories to bring attention to this that vilified a large number of people who were here legally in the community of Springfield,” the governor said, pointing to right-wing myths about Haitian migrants in the Ohio town.

Vance bypassed the false reports of residents eating pets but asserted: “In Springfield,Ohio, and in communities all across this country, you've got schools that are overwhelmed, you've got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you've got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes. The people that I'm most worried about in Springfield, Ohio, are the American citizens who have had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris's open border."

Economy

Vance acknowledged that when it comes to Kamala Harris’ economic policies, “some of it, I'll be honest with you, it even sounds pretty good,” including an expanded small business tax credit.

“What you won't hear is that Kamala Harris has already done it, because she's been the vice president for three and a half years,” Vance said. “She had the opportunity to enact all of these great policies, and what she's actually done instead is drive the cost of food higher by 25%, drive the cost of housing higher by about 60%, open the American southern border and make middle-class life unaffordable for a large number of Americans.”

And he shrugged off criticism from economists who have argued expanded tariffs promised by Trump would lead to increased costs.

Walz pounced on that skepticism from his Republican opponents.

“I made a note of this: [they say] economists, can't be trusted. Science, can't be trusted. National security folks, can't be trusted.

“Look, if you're going to be president, you don't have all the answers. Donald Trump believes he does. My pro tip of the day is this: If you need heart surgery, listen to the people at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, not Donald Trump.”

Flip-flops

Both candidates were put on the spot for past comments that have been put under the campaign microscope.

The CBS moderators pressed Walz over previously saying he was in Hong Kong during the deadly 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Minnesota Public Radio found he wasn’t in the country until a couple months after the demonstrations.

Walz pivoted to talking about his Nebraska upbringing, saying “I've tried to do the best I can, but I've not been perfect, and I'm a knucklehead at times, but it's always been about that those same people elected me to Congress for 12 years.”

Asked again about the discrepancy in his travel claims: “I got there that summer and misspoke on this… I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests, went in, and from that I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance.”

The moderators then queried Vance on his past comments on Trump, whom the senator once suggested “could be America's Hitler.”

“I've been extremely consistent that I think there were a lot of things that we could have done better in the Trump administration the first round, if Congress was doing its job,” Vance said.

Gun violence

Weeks after the latest mass school shooting in Winder, Georgia, Vance called for tighter school security and an increased focus on mental health, while Walz called for a federal ban on assault weapons that are frequently used in such attacks.

“I unfortunately think that we have to increase security in our schools,” Vance said. “We have to make the doors lock better. We have to make the doors stronger. We've got to make the windows stronger, and of course, we've got to increase school resource officers. Because the idea that we can magically wave a wand and take guns out of the hands of bad guys, it just doesn't fit with recent experience.”

Walz — who acknowledged he previously opposed an assault weapons ban, until after the Sandy Hook tragedy — said pinning the crisis on mental health was merely “looking for a scapegoat.”

“Sometimes it is just the guns. It's just the guns, and there are things that you can do about it,” Walz said.

“No one's trying to scaremonger and say, we're taking your guns. But I ask all of you out there: Do you want your schools hardened to look like a fort? Is that where we have to go when we know there's countries around the world [where] their children aren't practicing these types of drills? They're being kids. We owe it to them to get a fix. These are things that shouldn't be that difficult. You can still keep your firearms, and we can make a difference,” Walz said.

Jan. 6 and threats to democracy

Vance was pressed on his past comments that he wouldn’t have certified the results of the 2020 election.

The Ohio senator said "we're focused on the future," noted that Trump “said that protesters should peacefully protest on January the 6th,” and suggested Democrats posed a greater threat to democracy through censorship.

“If we want to say that we need to respect the results of the election, I'm on board,” Vance said. “But if we want to say, as Tim Walz is saying, that this is just a problem that Republicans have had, I don't buy that.”

Walz called Vance's response "a damning non-answer." The governor labeled the Capitol insurrection “a threat to our democracy in a way that 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.”

“I don't think we can be the frog in the pot and let the boiling water go up. He was very clear. I mean, he lost this 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. Several later died.”

“I think you've got a really clear choice on this election of who's going to honor democracy, and who's going to honor Donald Trump,” Walz said.