NEW YORK — Tim Walz and JD Vance on Tuesday went after each other’s running mates in a vice presidential debate that opened with a discussion of burgeoning domestic and international troubles — a hurricane that ravaged much of the southeast U.S. and growing fears of a regional Middle East war.
Both Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, and Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, focused many of their attacks at the top of the ticket, as is traditional for VP debates. They each pointed to the crises of the day as reasons for voters to choose Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.
Walz, answering a question on whether he’d support a preemptive strike on Iran after it launched missiles at Israel, painted Trump as too dangerous for the country and the world in an unstable moment.
“What’s fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter,” said Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota. “And the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago, a nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment.”
Vance, in his reply, argued that Trump is an intimidating figure whose presence on the international stage is its own deterrent.
“Donald Trump actually delivered stability,” he said.
The debate in New York hosted by CBS News opened with a sober tone that reflected growing domestic and international concerns about safety and security. But it gave way to sharper attacks from both Walz and Vance — and a moment in which the moderators stopped the discussion by cutting the two men’s mics.
Walz accused Vance and Trump of villainizing legal immigrants in Vance’s home state. He pointed to the fact that Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine had to send in extra law enforcement to provide security to the city’s schools after Vance tweeted about and Trump amplified false claims about Haitians eating pets.
“This is what happens when you don’t want to solve it, you demonize it,” Walz said, saying not doing so would allow people to “come together.”
Vance said the 15,000 Haitians in the city had caused housing, economic and other issues that the Biden-Harris administration was ignoring.
When the debate moderators pointed out that the Haitians living there had legal status, Vance protested that CBS News had said its moderators would not be fact-checking, leaving the onus to the candidates. As Vance continued and the moderators tried to move on, his microphone was cut and neither man could be heard.
Both men found unity on Hurricane Helene, which has devastated several states and caused massive flooding in North Carolina in particular. Walz mentioned the storm’s devastation and talked about working with governors across the country, saying they don’t let politics get in the way of collaborating.
The question about Hurricane Helene led to a moment of political comity as Vance said, “I’m sure Gov. Walz joins me in saying our hearts go out to those innocent people.”
The two Midwesterners struck a noticeably friendlier tone than matchup between Trump and Harris — or, earlier this year, Trump and President Joe Biden before he dropped out of the race.
When they first turned to immigration and the influx of migrants coming over the U.S.-Mexico border, one of the most heated topics of the campaign, the two men credited each other with having good intentions.
“I believe Senator Vance wants to solve this, but by standing with Donald Trump and not working together to find a solution, it becomes a talking point and when it becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanize and villainize other human beings,” Walz said.
Vance echoed the sentiment, saying, “I think you want to solve this problem, but I don’t think that Kamala Harris does.”
The debate could have outsized impact
Polls have shown Harris and Trump locked in a close contest, giving added weight to anything that can sway voters on the margins, including the impression left by the vice presidential candidates. It also might be the last debate of the campaign, with the Harris and Trump teams failing to agree on another meeting.
The role of a presidential running mate is typically to serve as an attack dog for the person at the top of the ticket, arguing against the opposing presidential candidate and their proxy on stage. Both Vance and Walz have embraced that role.
Early Tuesday night, Vance was giving a largely measured performance instead of assuming his combative persona from the campaign trail or in media interviews.
Walz, meanwhile, did not deploy the arsenal of folksy zingers that excited Democrats when he was named as Harris’ running mate.
Vance’s occasionally confrontational interviews and appearances have underscored why Trump picked him for the Republican ticket despite his past biting criticisms of the former president, including once suggesting Trump would be “America’s Hitler.”
“When you get something wrong and you change your mind, you ought to be honest with the American people,” he said Tuesday.
Walz had catapulted onto Harris’ campaign by branding Trump and Republicans as “ just weird,” creating an attack line for Democrats seeking to argue Republicans are disconnected from the American people.
He was pressed Tuesday on his misleading claim, which was investigated this week by Minnesota Public Radio and other outlets, that he was in Hong Kong during the turbulence surrounding the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, part of a broader pattern of inaccuracies that Republicans hope to exploit.
Confronted with his misstatements about his travels to China years ago, Walz defended himself by saying, “I’ve not been perfect.” In fact, he said, “I’m a knucklehead at times.” Eventually, he acknowledged he misspoke about his history.
A new AP-NORC poll found that Walz is better liked than Vance, potentially giving the Republican an added challenge.
Trump, on Tuesday evening, said his advice to Vance was to “have a lot of fun” and praised his running mate as a “smart guy” and “a real warrior.”
Price and Megerian reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Josh Boak in Baltimore, and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
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