CBS hosted the lone Vice Presidential debate for the 2024 election on Oct. 1.
The 90-minute debate, moderated by CBS’ Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan, featured topics ranging from climate change to the economy.
The first topic for the night was the Middle East, a prominent issue due to the war in Gaza and Iran’s recent missile strikes against Israel.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, responded to a question on whether or not he would support a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran by remarking on Israel’s defense and the type of leadership needed in the situation.
“Israel’s ability to be able to defend itself is absolutely fundamental,” Walz said. “But what’s fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter. It's clear and the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago, a nearly eighty-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment.”
The debate shifted to immigration, with Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, focusing on the U.S.-Mexico border crisis. He criticized Harris’ role in immigration policy.
“We have a historic immigration crisis because Kamala Harris started and said she wanted to undo all of Donald Trump’s border policies,” Vance said. “Suspending deportations, decriminalizing illegal aliens, and massively increasing the asylum fraud that exists in our system. That has opened the floodgates.”
The questions were not all revolving around the two candidates at the top of the ticket. The moderators also pointed questions directly at the running mates.
Walz was asked about his previous claim that he was in Hong Kong during the famous 1989 Tiananmen Square protest when he actually did not travel to Asia until later that year.
“I’m a knucklehead at times,” Walz said. “I misspoke on this. I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests and from that I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance.”
Vance was pressed on his prior negative comments about Donald Trump, calling him “unfit for the nation’s highest office” and comparing him to “America’s Hitler.”
“I was wrong about Donald Trump,” Vance said. “Most importantly, Donald Trump delivered for the American people… I’ve been extremely consistent, but 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.”
In their closing statements, Walz highlighted the diverse support behind Harris’ campaign.
“I’m as surprised as anybody of this coalition that Kamala Harris has built,” Walz said. “From Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney to Taylor Swift and a whole bunch of folks in between there.”
Vance, in his closing remarks, criticized Harris’ tenure as vice president, particularly on economic issues.
“I believe that whether you are rich or poor you ought to be able to afford a nice meal for your family,” Vance said. “That’s gotten harder because of Kamala Harris’ policies… She’s been the vice president for three and a half years. Day one was 1,400 days ago and her policies have made these problems worse.”
The debate marked the only vice presidential debate of the season, with the election set for Nov. 5.
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