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Viewers expecting a bruising boxing match Tuesday were given a Midwestern bromance instead, as vice presidential contenders Tim Walz and JD Vance lived up to their roots by largely keeping things civil as they tussled over the deep differences at the top of their respective tickets.
Typically the VP debate doesn’t receive that much attention and has often been an afterthought, but given former President Donald Trump’s refusal to face off Vice President Kamala Harris for another round this conversation might be the last contrast for voters to consider during the incredibly close 2024 presidential campaign.
The running mates didn’t go after each other much and were most passionate when asked about familiar campaigns themes, even as moderators started off with rising international crises and lives lost from Hurricane Helene.
Vance, in particular, was fiercely focused on the U.S. southern border crisis when asked about if family separation would be on the policy menu should Trump return to power.
“You’ve got to stop the bleeding,” the Ohio senator said. “You’ve got to reimplement Donald Trump’s border policies, build the wall, reimplement deportations.”
Similarly, Walz caught fire when the conversation turned toward abortion access and reproductive rights, calling out how the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade has put women’s health in danger.
As much as Walz and Vance jousted over the issues with the hopes of boosting their prospective bosses, the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate also served as a personality test for the two. Both showcase themselves as regular guys who represent Midwestern values as the Harris and Trump campaigns look for any edge in what’s turning into a widening gender gap.
Here are the key moments from Tuesday’s conversation.
Tim and JD play Midwest nice with each other
The two Midwestern dads wore their region’s polite reputation on their sleeves during the hour and a half debate to leverage the best parts of their personality in front of an audience that largely doesn’t know either one of them.
At various points the two complimented each other when throwing jabs at either Harris or Trump.
When the conversation turned to gun violence and mass shootings at schools, the two VP contenders, who are both fathers, expressed empathy for each other as worrying parents.
At another point Vance reminded the audience Harris in the incumbent VP while complimenting her economic agenda, saying “sounds pretty good” before calling out how she hasn’t implemented those ideas while serving in the White House.
“If Kamala Harris has such great plans for how to address middle class problems, then she ought to do them now, not when asking for a promotion,” he said.
This is particularly important for Vance, who came into Tuesday’s debate less well-liked than his Democratic counterpart, according to polls.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey released this month finds about half of registered voters have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of the Ohio senator, compared with the roughly 3 in 10 voters who have a negative view of Walz.
‘Knucklehead’: Walz nervous, stumbles on Tiananmen Square
Walz’s entrance onto the nationally televised debate stage was a shaky one.
In the first minutes of the exchange, the Democratic VP nominee’s demeanor was almost unrecognizable compared to his normally upbeat and personable image of an experienced politician and was replaced with a stoic, apprehensive newcomer.
Walz spent the first half of the debate struggling to answer questions and failed to introduce himself as his well-known public titles: coach, former teacher and father. The typically inviting figure seldom spoke of personal experiences and relied on data and talking about his running mate’s record.
The 60-year-old governor has faced similar scrutiny for making misleading statements, such as embellishing parts of his past military service record and criticism from conservatives on how he handled the 2020 riots after George Floyd died at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
When faced with owning up to his most recent gaffe, Walz was a deer in the headlights.
The moderators asked about Walz’s on-going claim he was present for the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests when recent reports contradict that timing, he danced around the question, calling himself a “knucklehead” saying he “misspoke.”
“I get caught up in the rhetoric,” he said.
Vance sells himself to national audience
Unlike Walz, who largely didn’t talk about his backstory, Vance was ready with nuggets from a tumultuous upbringing in southwest Ohio that anchored his best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy” about overcoming poverty and familial struggles with addiction.
The Ohio senator referenced his mother’s recovery from a substance abuse disorder and shared the story of a woman he knows who sought an abortion because she was in an abusive relationship. He mentioned more than once that he grew up in a working-class family, something he hopes will resonate with voters in Rust Belt states that are key to victory in November.
Vance also had to own up to his past criticism of Trump, and he did so with the ease of someone who’s been answering that question since he kicked off his Senate campaign in 2021.
“When you screw up, when you misspeak, when you get something wrong and you change your mind, you ought to be honest with the American people,” he said.
Walz pushes tragic abortion stories, Vance tries new approach
When the discussion turned to abortion, Walz passionately appealed to audiences through the screen by highlighting personal stories of women who face the repercussions of repealing of Roe v. Wade, blaming the Supreme Court decision on Trump.
“Donald Trump put this all into motion. He bragged about how great it was when he put the judges in and overturned (Roe). Then he tells us, ‘oh, send it to the states, it’s a beautiful thing,” he said.
Walz brought up two women who have become the face of the country’s reproductive rights debate, namely Amanda Zurawskia, a Texas woman who almost died after complications associated with her 18-week pregnancy, and Hadley Duval, a Kentucky woman who was impregnated after being sexually assaulted by her stepfather.
“Those are horrific,” Walz said. “Senator Vance said two wrongs don’t make a right, there is not right in this.”
Vance sought a different approach and tried to cast the Republican ticket as more moderate than Democrats and other critics have depicted them amid consecutive losses at the ballot box by the anti-abortion side over the past two years.
The GOP has a trust problem when it comes to the issue of abortion, especially with women, he acknowledged.
The Ohio senator asserted he didn’t support a national abortion ban, even though he advocated for a “minimum national standard” as a Senate candidate. He cited the story of a woman who is “very dear to me” who told him, “a couple years ago that she felt like if she hadn’t had that abortion that it would have destroyed her life because she was in an abusive relationship.”
But he asserted how the Trump ticket is doing that by promoting pro-family policies, such as fertility treatments and helping families financially. He also defended Trump’s position that abortion regulation should be left up to the states.
During the debate, Trump chimed in online saying if sent back to the White House he, “would not support a federal abortion ban” and that he would veto a national abortion ban if he’s elected to a second term.
When Walz brought up the case of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died after a long delay in getting a procedure to clear fetal tissue from her body after she took abortion bills, Vance said: “I agree with you Amber Thurman should still be alive.”
No pets allowed: Dog and cat eating claims left out of immigration clash
Vance didn’t stand on the debate stage and claim that Haitian migrants are eating people’s dogs, which startled viewers who watched the Harris-Trump debate a month ago.
But both candidates invoked Springfield, Ohio, as they sparred on border security — one of the biggest issues in the presidential race. The city was thrust into the national immigration debate last month after Vance and Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims about migrants harming pets and stealing waterfowl.
“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,” Walz said.
“When it becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanize and villainize other human beings.”
An estimated 15,000 Haitians arrived in Springfield in recent years through a federal program that awards temporary protective status to migrants fleeing violence in their home countries. The influx has strained local hospitals and schools, and Springfield officials requested federal assistance earlier this year to address a housing shortage.
Vance cited those concerns during the debate, pinning the blame squarely on the Biden and Harris administration. Moderators clarified that Springfield’s Haitian population is there legally, which prompted pushback from Vance and led to both candidates’ microphones being muted.
“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,” Vance said. “It is a disgrace.”
