On Tuesday October 1st, Vice Presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz met for the first time on the CBS News stage. The debate was an opportunity for the candidates to fully introduce themselves to Americans and defend their campaign policies as we draw closer to the 2024 Presidential election.
Although Vice Presidential debates generally attract a much smaller audience than Presidential debates, any confrontation between candidates can be an opportunity to influence an upcoming election. The Harris-Trump debate on September 10th garnered over 67 million viewers while Tuesday’s Walz-Vance debate was seen by around 43 million people across 15 different cable networks.
Leading up to the debate, HHS students were asked what they thought about the event. Freshman Grace Jacobs admitted that she has not fully watched the past several debates, explaining that she ends up watching clips of them on social media rather than on broadcast television. Valentina Neyra, a sophomore, also relayed that what she knows about the debate has come from social media like TikTok. Of those students who planned on watching the debate, Coco Prohm said she wants to watch the debate because, “I think understanding the options we have as a country for political roles is important…I also think knowing what values each person has will help me understand what the government will be like for the next coming presidential term.”
Whether you tuned into the debate on Tuesday, or if you had no idea that the debate was happening, or even if you only saw clips on social media, here is a rundown. The Vice-Presidential debate between Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz was hosted by CBS News. Prior to the debate the news station stated that they reserved the right to mute candidates’ microphones in order to maintain decorum during discussion. Each candidate was given two minutes to respond to hot-topic questions and two-minute rebuttals to fact check or combat their opponent’s claims. Overall, the debate remained civilized with only a few notable conflicts. The opening question asked how candidates planned to react to current conflicts in the Middle East. While Governor Walz gave an explanation of his campaign’s plans and reasonings, Senator Vance introduced himself fully before giving a brief response.
Throughout the debate Senator Vance focused his responses on his own identity and Governor Walz spoke frequently about Vance’s running mate Donald Trump. Both candidates took time to explain past comments and actions leading up to the debate. An important focus for Vice Presidential candidates is to make sure they do not contradict the claims of their running mate and stay on brand even when they are forced to improvise. This was a more difficult task for Senator Vance as before he joined Former President Trump’s campaign, he had made a few comments contradicting and even criticizing his running mate.
The debate moved to the topic of climate change. As Senator Vance explained how Trump’s policies would help to solve climate change, Governor Walz pointed out Former President Trump’s previous claim that climate change is a hoax. While Trump has described climate change as “non-existent” and even “mythical” he has also supported different Climate Action measures and his views on the climate are unclear. Throughout the debate the candidates did seem to agree on many topics at least partly. For example, on the topic of immigration and its effect on some communities Vance stated, “It is a disgrace, Tim, and I actually think I agree with you.” Furthermore, when discussing abortion rights Governor Walz explained “I agree with a lot of what Senator Vance said about what is happening. His running mate, though, does not. And that is the problem.”
The debate continued to run smoothly but an issue arose while on the topic of immigration. Following Walz’s criticism of Donald Trump’s memorable comments during the Harris-Trump debate about Haitian immigrants in Springfield Ohio “eating the pets of the people that live there,” Vance was given a chance to speak. Afterwards, he backed up his running mate’s claims and continued to refer to Springfield’s Haitian immigrants as illegal. Governor Walz surprised many when he quoted a bible verse as a response. Later the moderator fact checked Vance’s comments and confirmed the Haitian population was in fact legal. Senator Vance talked over both moderators as they tried to move on to the next question. He explained that the Haitian community in Springfield had obtained their citizenship through a program from the Biden administration which Senator Vance was heavily opposed to. The moderators informed Senator Vance that in accordance with CBS’s policy his microphone was now muted.
Aside from this incident the opponents kept formality and polite interactions outside of some more intense disagreements. One disagreement emerged as Senator Vance referred to his and Trump’s “Common sense wisdom” while Governor Walz implored Americans to listen to experts over the opinions of Donald Trump. Later in the debate Senator Vance was asked to speak about his aforementioned criticisms of Former President Trump prior to becoming his running mate. He explained how he had incorrectly believed false media about his current running mate.
Continuing the candidate’s pattern of at least partial agreement on some topics, they seemed to share similar views on other issues like childcare and even sympathy over Walz’s anecdote of his own son witnessing gun violence. Overall, the night ran smoothly with numerous moments of shared humanity and agreement with very few scuffles and heated arguments. They began and ended the debate with an amicable handshake and even gave each other a pat on the back before joining their wives off stage. The debate ran smoothly, and it brought us one step closer to the upcoming presidential election.
Sources:
–https://www.npr.org/2024/10/01/nx-s1-5135687/vice-president-debate-walz-vance-agreement
–https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51213003
–https://www.cbsnews.com/news/full-vp-debate-transcript-walz-vance-2024/
–https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/02/politics/vp-debate-key-lines-what-matters/index.html
–https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vp-debate-ratings-2024/
–https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/harris-trump-presidential-debate-transcript/story?id=113560542
