Walz delivers weak performance in vice presidential debate, Vance misleads on fentanyl and Harris

WASHINGTON - Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stumbled repeatedly at the first and only vice presidential debate on Tuesday night with Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance giving a smoother performance.

Walz at times looked like a deer caught in headlights.

Walz even botched an easy one. He couldn’t pull it together to effectively go after Vance for his false claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating other people's cats and dogs. And Walz did not bring up Vance's "childless cat lady" snipe.

It’s unlikely that the debate between Walz, 60 and Vance, 40 changes the tight race between their bosses, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, both fighting for a sliver of undecided voters in seven swing states.

The debate took place hours after Iran launched a major missile attack against Israel, and as people in southern states struggled in the horrendous aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The first two questions were about the Iran strike — coming as the Oct. 7 anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel approaches — and the hurricane.

The toll of the hurricane has more consequences politically, since parts of swing states North Carolina and Georgia are under water.

The showdown hosted by CBS at the network's Broadcast Center in Manhattan, was moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan.

The cut mics

Brennan did a fact check on Vance on the Springfield issue, centering on Haitian immigrants who he said are in the U.S. illegally. It’s part of the hard push Vance made at the debate that Harris is soft when it comes to the southern border.

Brennan made it clear most were in the U.S. legally. Vance protested, saying it was against the rules to fact check. Actually, the written rules were silent on this point. When Vance and Walz started going after each other and not moving on to the next question, CBS did invoke one of the written rules — “CBS News reserves the right to turn off candidates microphones” — and it did.

Walz big fumble, worst moment of the debate

Walz was asked about the false claim he made that he was in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing. He should have seen this coming. He came across as totally unprepared and got caught up in a word salad of his own making.

“All I said on this is I got there this summer and misspoke on this. So I will just — that’s what I’ve said. So 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.” Walz eventually called himself “a knucklehead at times” for his wrong claim.

Walz prodded to do fentanyl fact check

Walz was prodded by the moderator to defend Harris, who asked Walz, “do you care to respond” to Vance’s allegations that she is “letting in fentanyl and using kids as drug mules” as part of his strong attacks on Harris over immigration.

This is one of Vance’s top debate false claims and Walz should have done more to defend Harris. A few days ago at the border, Harris called fentanyl a “scourge on our country” and said that as president she would “make it a top priority to disrupt the flow of fentanyl coming into the United States.” What Vance was doing was an extension of Trump’s lie when he said at a Pennsylvania rally, “She even wants to legalize fentanyl.”

Vance sidesteps Trump climate change denial

In the wake of Hurricane Helene, Walz and Vance were asked about climate change. Vance was misleading, given how little Trump did to curb climate change while in office and pulled out of international pacts. Vance said, “Donald Trump and I support clean air, clean water, we want the environment to be cleaner and safer.”

Before debate, Pritzker said Walz needed to show “heart.”

Gov. JB Pritzker was among the surrogates in the spin room for the debate. On CNN, Pritzker said before the debate that the “biggest thing” Walz needed to do was to “show his heart.”

If that was the benchmark, Walz did not meet it, on style and on substance.

Pritzker’s been on the road for the ticket, campaigning in Arizona, where he has emerged as a significant force because of his financial muscle. As AZ.com reported, “Pritzker, a billionaire connected to the Hyatt fortune, is listed as the third-largest donor on the state's campaign finance site, having contributed $850,000 to the Think Big America-AZ PAC. The PAC then donated $512,000 to Arizona for Abortion Access, the coalition behind Proposition 139, which seeks to enshrine the right to abortion in the state Constitution.