NEW YORK, New York– U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took to the stage Tuesday evening for the CBS News Vice Presidential Debate at the CBS Broadcast Center in Manhattan, New York. Both nominees were vice presidential, media pundits said after the debate, and they clashed on almost every issue.
Walz is a Democrat, and Vance is a Republican.
It was an informative but lacklustre debate that focused on policy issues but lacked the chaos that often surrounded presidential debates featuring former President Donald Trump, aside from this year's CNN debate between Trump and then-presidential nominee President Joe Biden. That debate proceeded with established rules designed to minimize outbursts.
Trump faces Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, for the Nov. 5, 2024 presidential election that is predicted by pundits to be contentious at best.
The debate issues addressed by CBS moderators ranged in scope from the Middle Eastern conflict, foreign and domestic policy, gun control and inflation, to healthcare, abortion, and reproductive rights.
Noticeably, Vance backtracked on his previous stance for a national abortion ban since polls show Republicans remain under fire following the June 24, 2022, 5-4 Roe v Wade reversal decision by a Supreme Court stacked with conservative Trump appointees.
Ohio voters passed ballot Issue 1 last November, a constitutional amendment that gives women in Ohio access to abortion and other reproductive rights and a ballot issue that brought destain from state Republican operatives, including Vance himself.
Also at issue during the debate was the conflict over racist activity regarding Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. Vance and Trump amplified unsubstantiated claims that Haitian migrants in Springfield were eating their neighbor’s pets, upsetting Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, who has publicly denounced both of them for perpetuating the conflict and spreading lies.
Another matter that stood out was Vance's refusal to say if he believed that Trump lost his reelection bid to President Joe Biden in 2020, an election that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol Bldg. It was fueled by Trump's rhetoric that the election was stolen from him and was later coupled with a still pending federal elections subversion criminal case against him.
